Final Fantasy: Clouds Story
by Eden4
Summary: Cloud stife is on a adventure and he wants you to hear his story.
1. The World of Shira Inc

                                                                                      The World of Shinra Inc.

It started harmlessly enough. A young man in a suit, a small office building and a dream. The man called himself Shinra and he was the founder of a new weapons company called surprisingly "Shinra Incorporated". He was a slender man, with curley blond hair and blue eyes. His parents were farmers in the nearby town of Kalm; but he wanted nothing to do with that. Only a few months out of college he sold the bank on the idea of his company, and now it was finally underway. 

With the help of some of his rich college friends he had managed to hire a good sized staff and begin development of new weapons. The economic climate was just right for his company and soon it was one of the premire businesses of Midgar. 

Very business savy Shinra slowly began to buy out the other companies. Being able to give the people what they wanted was a gift that Shinra had; the other companies could not compete with that and soon Shinra Inc. was the only weapons dealer left. After buying out a construction company Shinra began expanding into other markets. Being able to do quality building for less money made the orders swamp in. Soon Shinra and a development team unveil the plate project. 

At a press conference Shinra smiled as he said, "The idea is simple. We plan on building a city above all cities! This project is about bringing people together...It will be built by people working with eachother and afterward it will be maintained by people working together. Midgar is the greatest city in the world! It is only fitting that the city looks the part!" 

The people ate it up and soon the industrial and rich sections of the city were fifty meters above the ground. Critics of the plate program questioned the time it would take to build. But they had failed to take into account that Shinra had control of the supplies and builders. The project itself only took twelve years of non stop work to complete. Connected by railroad the people in the old city, now called the slums, could commute to the surface. Most of these people had signed on to work for Shinra as smaller companies were unable to buy real estate on top. The larger industries had to pay a heafty sum, annaully, to get up there. These smaller companies, who were now in a poor locataion and unable to market simply went out of business. 

By this time Shinra was into all the markets: TV, radio, appliences, cars. With all the revenue they had the ability to employ an army with which to protect the citizens of the city. Soon the company decided to take a shot at space travel. Meeting with failure President Shinra, as he called himself now, was faced with a new problem. The city of Midgar was growing and the need for power had increased beyond the capacity of the power plants. 

Looking to his large Research and Development team they proposed the use of "mako" energy. It was very efficient and it was extracted right from nature. Shinra was very pleased with this. He put most of his company's budget toward the creation of a stable mako reactor. The first attempts were failures, causing the deaths of a more than a few workers. 

Considering putting an end to the project he was extremely happy when a young scientist named Gast came up with a reactor that was stable. Putting him at the head of the science department Shinra had Professor Gast work with the urban planning team to build enough for the city. Considering the size of the city it was decided that 6 reactors would be needed; Shinra decided to increase it to eight so as to provide for future growth. Soon all eight were ready to go. 

When the reactors were first activated the city rejoiced with the knowledge that they would never run out of power. For awhile no one noticed the effect that these reactors were having on the environment, at least not the people on the plate itself. Down below the slums had become very polluted as the residual materials from factories and reactors alike, settled down below. Within five miles of the city, all plant life disappeared, and soon the animals went with it. Some Shinra scientists theorized that extracting mako energy was harming the planet in some way. 

Deciding not to "cause a panic" Shinra buried the reports. The science department was always looking for new ways to use their miracle energy source. By condensing mako they found they had made a crystal that could harness a certain power of the planet. Calling this item "Materia" they put it to use with the military. 

Another miracle use they had found was with human beings. By exposing an individual to low amounts of mako they found physical strenght increased as well as durability. Shinra immediatly went ahead with the SOLDIER program and had the most elite of his army become mako infused. One other physical side effect to the process was that the mako infused individual now had eyes that glowed. The SOLDIER program was started just in time for a war with the great nation of Wutai. 

For the past few years Shinra and Wutai had been at in conflict over business territory. Open war broke out and by the looks of things, the war would go on for a long time. Deciding to put his untested SOLDIERs to use; the tide of the war turned slowly at first. Then under the command of a SOLDIER named Sephiroth, things went completely in Shinra Inc.'s favor. Only three years into the war Wutai surrendured unconditionally. 

Happy with the results President Shinra turned his attention to the now free global market. Sending people to all towns in the world, he convinced many of the local leaders to build mako reactors. Soon the entire world seemed to be at the finger tip of one man. 

As a few years went by some reactor accidents occured. Shinra fearing that someone or something was trying to put him out of business he began using his military and SOLDIERs to oppress the masses. Small groups began to protest; but no one felt they had the power to do anything. This is the world that Shinra made.


	2. And So it Begins

**And So it Begins**

The stars in the sky. Always there, watching over the world, over us. They were there when we began and many will still be there after we go. Far below, in a city alley; a young woman is transfixed by the sparks of a broken electrial box. The alley was clean but wet from a recent rain. It was one of the few times she got to feel the rain. The coolness of it, the carelessness. She often wished to be like it. Regaining her attention, this young woman looked down toward the main street. She was of average height and small build, with waste length brown hair that she always had braided and tied together with a large pink bow. Her eyes were sea green and sometimes would glow, if the light hit her right. She was wearing a pink dress, which had buttons down the middle. Over that she wore a red jacket which she left open. She had two items with her: a basket of wild flowers, mostly lillies and roses, and a wooden staff, which was a few inches shorter than she was. It was relatively thin, she could easliy grip it on the thickest part and in the middle there was a green stone. This was a constant companion to her for all the hidden dangers that lurked in the city. This was her protection.

Standing straight up again, she picked up the basket and slowly began to make her way out of the damp alley. Signs for the play "Loveless" were scatterd all over the place. For some time she had been thinking of taking her mother to see it, (Maybe I'll get some tickets on my way home. I'm sure mom would like that alot.) Smiling, she came to the corner of a busy street. A car sped by and she looked both ways before beginning to cross.

In another part of the city, a far dirtier part, some guards were resting against a wall on a railroad station platform. They were both wearing red uniforms, ones normally worn by the guards who worked at the railroad. Both men were in their mid-twenties and both were tired from standing around all day; but niether would complain. (Work is work) they had to tell themselves on more than one occassion. One of the guards looked down at his watch and then he glanced over at his companion, "The next train will be here in a few minutes...better look sharp." The second guard sighed and nodded. They both straightened themselves up and walked toward the end of the platform, closest to the tracks.

Getting onboard the train wasn't difficult at all. The guards there were weak and very easy to overpower. With them disposed of a group of five settled into some seats. There were four men and one woman. Two of the men and the woman were talking about some things. He heard the over weight guy get called Wedge and the thinner one Biggs. The woman went by the name of Jessie. Not that it really mattered to him; he was here to do a job and to get paid. Those were his only two concerns, well actually three. The third was that really bulky guy sitting across from him. He was over six feet tall and on his right arm there was a shiney gun attachment, where the hand should have been. He had the look of someone who had been through alot. There was an angered expression, almost one of hatred, on his face. He wondered what had happened for the man to get that way. Everyone called him Barett and he was unquestionably the leader of this group. He knew Barett was watching his every movement.

Barett looked over at the new guy. His eyes were what scared him the most. They had a glow to them that just wasn't natural. Barett had never seen a SOLDIER before, one of the Shinra corporation's elite soldiers. He knew that the side effects of a mako infusion were the glowing eyes, enhanced strength, and increased durability. It because of these facts that Shinra had won the war against Wutai a few years back.

To Barett there wasn't much else to him besides the eyes. Sure he had a large sword; but Barett questioned the effectiveness of such a bulky weapon. The man seemed confident enough and Barett wasn't about to question him. What struck him as odd was the hair, it was blond and way too spikey. There was alot about the new guy he didn't know, a fact that he wasn't too happy about. But the man was there because of a recommendation, one Barett could not pass up. (This is your test kid...you had better work out for us...) Barett and the others felt the train begin to stop. Slowly each one stood up, they all had assignments and in order for them to succeed they would have to do them perfectly.

The guards on the platform were still unalert as the train came to a hault. The first guard didn't even move when the doors opened and Biggs jumped out. Quickly taking the guard's arm Biggs effortlessly tossed him over his shoulder; with a loud thud the guard hit the pavement hard and went unconscious. Hearing the commotion the second guard faced the attacker and began to run toward him. If he had gotten to Biggs he would have had his weapon ready, if he got there. He was surprised to see a woman jump out in front of him and place a boot right into his stomach. Falling backwards, he hit his head on the train and also blacked out.

Wedge quickly jumped off the train and looked at the scene. With both guards out of the way he smiled and motioned for Biggs and Jessie to follow him. As they went down the platform Barett jumped off the train. "C'mon newcomer...follow me!" he yelled as he waved for the SOLDIER to join him. The blond haired man did so by doing a flip with a twist, landing behind, but facing Barett. (@#%#@% show off!) Barett thought as he began running down the platform.

The blond haired man took some time to inspect the two guards and found some potions on them. (These could come in handy later on...) he thought as he began to run down the platform. Before he reached the end some new guards came running through the door. These security guards were a bit more experienced than the other two. Unsheathing his sword he slid his right foot back and bent his left knee. Using the knee for a base he lowered the handle of his sword til it touched, this was his normal fighting stance. Looking at the guards he mentally prepared for the attack. The first guard tried to hit him with a knightstick but with one quick motion had it cut in two. With an effortless swing the sword cut through the guards side. With blood covering his uniform shirt the first guard grasped at his bleeding side and fell to the ground. The second had already drawn his gun and began to fire wildly. Seeing the fear in the guards eyes made the blond haired man smile inwardly. Keeping himself moving, he heard the bullets bounce off the walls behind him. Then using his momentum he lowered himself down, sprung in and ran the guard through. The guard looked surprised as the blade passed through his back. The gun slipped out of his hand, and the SOLDIER quickly removed it. The soldier slumped into a heap on the platform, blood was pooling around him.

Without looking back or losing a step he resheathed the sword and continued toward his collegues. From their perspective they saw the security guards head in his direction. Biggs tried to head back to help but Wedge stopped him. They all leaned back against a wall and hoped he would do alright. Seeing him emerge a few minutes later unscathed made them all light up. He began walking toward them. Biggs was the first to say something, "Wow! You used to be in SOLDIER all right! ...Not everday ya find one in a group like AVALANCHE."

The mention of SOLDIER made Jessie look behind her, "SOLDIER? Aren't they the enemy? What's he doing with us in AVALANCHE?"

Biggs was quick to step in, "Hold it Jessie, he was in SOLDIER. He quit them and now is one of us.", he thought for a moment, "Didn't catch your name..."

The SOLDIER looked over at him, "...Cloud."

Biggs nodded, "Cloud eh, I'm..."

Cloud inturupted him, "I don't care what your names are. Once this jobs over...I'm outta here."

By this time Barett had come back from his quick look over of the area. Seeing them together didn't make him happy, "The hell you all doin'!? I thought I told you never to move in a group. Our target's the North Mako Reactor. We'll meet on the bridge in front of it."

Jessie quickly over-rid the door security and it opened slowly. She, Biggs and Wedge began to run down the path into the complex. Before Cloud could follow Barett stopped him, "Ex-SOLDIER huh? Don't trust ya!"

With a cold stare he turned around and he ran down the path, soon afterward Cloud did as well. The inside of the complex was pretty dirty, much like the city. The reactor hadn't been maintained well, in Cloud's oppinion; but he only had gone in one reactor before. The place also smelled terrible. The whole city of Midgar had the smell of factory smoke and mako. It was worse inside the reactor. (It's a wonder how anyone wants to live here at all.) Cloud thought, (I guess you can get used to anything if you have to) There were occassional security guards to deal with as well as monsters. He handled them very easily and made his way into the main reactor section of the complex. Barett, Biggs and Jessie were waiting.

Barett looked over at Cloud, "Yo! This your first time in a reactor?"

Cloud shook his head, "No, after all I did work for Shinra you know." 

Barett smirked, "Mako is the life source of this planet...people here use it everday." 

Cloud looked indifferent, "Let's just hurry." 

Insulted by his lack of caring Barett yelled, "That's it! You're coming with me for now on!" 

Cloud just carelessly shrugged his shoulders which made Barett madder. Biggs looked back at them, "Jessie and I have the codes for these doors." With that said he opened the first one and they all moved inside. Looking toward Biggs again he shook his head, "Just think of all the people who risked their lives...just for this code." Jessie then proceeded to open the second door.

Biggs stayed behind as Cloud, Barett and Jessie went toward an elevator at the end of the corridor. Manipulating the controls the doors slid open and the three stepped inside. Jessie looked over at Cloud, "Push that button over there.", she said. 

Walking over to the wall of the freight elevator he pushed a round button and the elevator began descending into the depths of the reactor. As the elevator went down, Barett looked over at Jessie and Cloud. "Little by little the reactors'll drain out all the life and that'll be that." 

Cloud shook his head and said, "It's not my problem." 

This took both Jessie and Barett back. Almost yelling Barett said, "The planet's dying Cloud!" 

Cloud stared at him, "All I care about is finishing this job before security and the robo-guards come." 

Filled with rage Barett's hand shook. (What's this guy's problem?!) he thought. Before he could go into it further the elevator stopped.

Quickly moving outside, all three ran down a large set of stairs which went right into the very heart of the reactor. Passing through a large metal door, the smell of mako was stronger here. If one were not used to it, the smell would be almost nausiating. After climbing down some maintainence ladders Jessie remained on guard as Barett and Cloud moved deeper toward the core. Climbing down to a large catwalk they both looked down at the glowing material beneath them. It was white and green colored, steaming in parts, and all but lethal if either of them fell in. Barett shook his head slowly, (It's because of this that so many people died.) Looking ahead at the large reactor core he refocused and started toward it.

Looking up and seeing Barett go on ahead, Cloud began to follow him. Just before the core Cloud found a piece of materia on the ground. Cloud picked it up and held it for a moment. The power of the planet itself was held in each piece of materia. It enabled the owner to call upon a certain element, or just enhance the fighters abililty, in battle. Because of its range of uses materia had become quite common. Looking over at the pieces he had carefully placed in his weapon earlier, Cloud smiled at both the "Lightning" and "Ice" materia. Each was quite powerful in its own way. During his training in SOLDIER, Cloud was taught how to differentiate between one type of materia and another. Color, shape, and look were all ways to tell which was which. From the looks of it, the new piece looked like it was a "Restore" materia. He knew they would need cure spells later on so he placed it in his pack. Walking over to the core Barett was already waiting for him. He looked over at Cloud, "When we blow this place, this ain't gonna be nothing more than a hunk of junk." He handed Cloud the explosive, "Cloud you set the bomb." 

Cloud glared at him, "Shouldn't you do it?" 

Barett shook his head, "Jus do it! I gotta watch to make sure you don't pull nothin'!" 

Shrugging his shoulders Cloud said, "Fine be my guest."

As he knelt down he felt a weird sensation throughout his whole body. A dull pain developed in his head. Nothing too strong, just enough to make him forget everything that was going on around him. He heard a voice yell, "Watch out! This isn't just a reactor!!" 

Barett's voice brought him back, "....What's wrong?" 

Cloud looked up at him blankly, "Huh?" 

Barett looked impatiently back at him, "What's wrong, Cloud? Hurry it up!" 

Cloud looked back down at the bomb. Trying to shake off what had just happend he slowly said, "...Yeah sorry". 

Pushing out the hesitation he now felt, he leaned over and began attaching the explosive to the core. As soon as he activated the timer an alarm went off. (Damn! It was rigged!), he thought as he got to his feet. Barett looked around, "Head's up here they come!"

A large scorpion like machine dropped in from the floor above. It was easily twice the height of them and it looked pretty mean. The large tail had a sharp blade at the end of it; and it also had two machine guns in its two front arms. It started things off by firing its guns at both men. Quickly seperating Cloud and Barett ended up on opposite sides of eachother. Cloud dropped back and began to cast "Bolt" spells while Barett simply opened up on it with his gatling gun. Occassionally the Guard Scorpion would lauch its tail, or fire its guns at either Cloud or Barett. Both men dodged the attacks easily. Soon the machine began to change it's tactics. Moving away from them it raised it's tail. Cloud remembered reading about this machine while he still worked for Shinra. It was a confidential article which made sure to point out that the Guard Scorpion had a tail laser attack. This weapon was only used while the tail was up and it was taking damage. As Barett was about to fire on it again Cloud put his arm up to stop him, "NO! If you attack while it's tail's up. It's gonna counterattack with its laser!" 

Barett looked at him strangely. Cloud had a serious expression on his face so he slowly nodded and lowered his weapon. Cloud and he used some potions to revitalize themselves. And when the Guard Scorpion's tail went back down, the two resumed their attack. It didn't take long for the machine to be too damaged to continue. With one final shudder it slumped to the ground and shut down.

Looking through the scrap quickly Cloud found a gun attachment. Barett looked at it, smiled and quickly switched the assault gun with his gatlin gun. Cloud looked at the timer. (The fight took off more time than I had wanted...only ten minutes to detonation.) He looked at Barett, "Come on let's get out of here." With out needing to be told twice both man began to scramble back toward the surface. As if sensing something wrong, the reactor monsters began to attack them more often; and now with the alarms sounding security also picked up. Each battle took more time off the clock. Cloud decided not to worry about that. (Just get back to the surface.) As they climbed the ladders they reached the platform Jessie had stayed on. Cloud noticed she was sitting on the ground tugging at her foot. He ran over to her, and helped her get her foot out, "You all right?", he asked quickly. 

She looked frustrated, "My leg got stuck." 

He got her to her feet. She smiled at him, "Thanks!" She began to run over to the nearby ladder. 

When she was a reasonable distance up the ladder Cloud and Barett quickly followed. At the surface they waited for Jessie and Biggs to open the doors again. All four ran back to the main catwalk and took a right to where Wedge was keeping watch. He had a surprised look on his face as they all ran toward him. As they all ran for cover Barett, in his haste, accidentally tripped Jessie. She hit the ground hard and didn't move for a few seconds. Cloud knelt down and helped her to her feet. She smiled at him, just as she did before and dashed toward the enclosed corridor. He looked at his watch and bolted for the exit. As he dove by the door; the timer on the bomb hit zero.


	3. Keeping the Promises

                                                                                 Keeping the Promises

High above the city in an office that was far larger than was needed. An aging man with balding blond hair and an expensive red suit was sitting in his desk, looking over paperwork. In fact the only thing in this office was the large desk and himself. Red carpet lined the two stair cases that went down to the floor below. There were windows all around him, so he could see the city that he had built. He had long since gone through his prime and besides the fact of aging he had also begun to gain weight. His personal appearence in that aspect did not seem to bother him. He was just engrossed in his paperwork. (Profits are up 3% this quarter. Hmmm a rate hike can increase that by 2 more.) A smile came to his face, (It's so good to be...) The sound of an explosion made him look around and the sudden shudder of the building became total blackness as the power went out. President Shinra stood up in the darkness waiting. Soon the back-up generators turned on. Shinra hit some buttons on his phone, "I want someone to find out what happened...NOW!"

Cloud stood up as the smoke cleared around him. The room they all were in was badly damaged; but as Jessie said it withstood the blast. After a few moments the rest of the group had stood up. Biggs coughed, Wedge brushed himself off and Jessie quickly took out a smaller explosive from her pack. She moved over to the wall and began to set it. Cloud had moved to the back and leaned against the broken wall there. Biggs was grinning, "That should keep the planet going...at least a little longer." 

Wedge looked up, "Yeah." 

Barett just stared at them, but said nothing. After that Jessie stood up quickly, "Ok, Now everyone get back!"

The wall in the back quickly broke apart as the small explosive did its work. With flames licking over the top of the ceiling, Cloud dove through the wall and rolled on the ground. He quickly spun toward the burning wall to see the others come through. Cloud smiled as Wedge ran around and blew on the flames to keep them going. Barett looked at everyone, "Alright, now lets get out of here. Rendezvous at Sector Eight Station! Split up and get on the train!"

As everyone left Cloud tried to stop Barett, "H,hey!", he called out. 

Barett stopped and quickly said to Cloud, "If its about your money save it 'til we're back at the hideout." Turning away he quickly ran up the stairs. After a long moment Cloud followed.

The street that was once clean of all litter was now full of burning and smoking debris. Some people were bloodied, some were more seriously injured. Remarkably, a few weren't hurt at all. The flower girl was one of those people. During the explosion she was along side of a building that was infront of the blast. She had since moved out to see what was going on. As she tried to collect herself someone bumped into her hard, knocking her and her flowers to the ground. A normal person would be mad at the rudeness of it all; but deep down inside she knew how scared that person must be, (He might just be looking for someone right now.), she thought, and she let it slide. She stooped down and picked up her flowers.

At that moment Cloud casually walked in from the left. The flower girl had seen a few others running by from that direction, one of them had a gun-arm; he looked scary to her. What caught her eye about Cloud was his glowing, blue, eyes. She had only known one other person with glowing eyes before. She approached him, "Excuse me." He looked over at her and smiled. She tried not to, but couldn't help looking right into his eyes, "What happened?"

His first reaction to her was that she was very attractive. He noticed she was looking at his eyes, a fact he had gotten used to since his mako infusion. He decided to change the subject, "Nothing...hey, listen...don't see many flowers around here." 

She looked into her basket, "Oh these, do you like them, they're only a gil." 

Cloud reached into his pocket and took out two bills. When he handed them to her, her green eyes lit up, "Oh thank you! Here you are!" Her smile seemed to cheer him up so he grinned back at her again. She waved at him as she walked away. He wondered, for a moment, if he would ever see her again.

After standing there amongst all that confusion Cloud decided to move on, he had a train to catch. Moving into Sector Eight square he saw a few people running around. He wondered how many of them would be without homes that night. Cloud walked down the side of the square to where an old man was. He was looking at a sign posted on the wall nearby. Cloud glanced up at it, (I wonder what is on that wall over there. Let's see..."Don't be fooled by Shinra! Mako energy doesn't last forever! Mako is the planet's lifesource! The end is in sight! Protector of the planet: AVALANCHE")

As Cloud shook his head,he left the old man where he was. Cloud moved down to the connecting alley, toward the train station. He heard someone walking up behind him, "Hey you there!" a gruff voice yelled. Cloud turned around to see two Shinra soldiers coming in his direction. Cloud thought for a moment, (Fight them.) The battle was quick, even though they were Shinra soldiers, the regular ones weren't too strong. With no war to fight the quality of the military had gone down drastically. These two men went down after a few seconds. "Hmph", Cloud said as he began to walk away. The sound of a bullet grazing the wall to his right made him turn around again. Two more soldiers had come up from his rear and began to shoot into the air. (That means more are coming.), he thought. As he turned the corner to his right three soldiers blocked him off. He unsheathed his sword and went straight for the first one. With one swift blow the surprised soldier fell to the ground. The second came up and started swinging his nightstick. Dodging the first few blows, he allowed one to graze off his shoulder protector. Then in a quick back motion he sliced the middle of the guard. As the guard fell to the ground, the third guard had fallen back hoping to be out of range for Cloud. Shooting his weapon, the bullets all missed as Cloud spun around went clean through the soldier's chest. With one final gasp he collapsed to his knees and slumped forward.

He figured that there would be soldiers coming from that direction, so he turned around and ran toward sector one. Three soldiers also came out from that side, he decided not to fight them. He backed away only to find himself surrounded by eight soldiers. One came up to him, "That's as far as you go." 

Cloud was annoyed, "I don't have time to be messin' with you guys." 

The first soldier motioned to the others, "Enough babbling! Grab him!"

As all eight soldiers converged on him the sound of a train grew louder. Cloud didn't even think about it. Turning around he ran for the bridge railing and jumped onto it. Underneath, a train passed by and before he could be grabbed, he dropped down to it.

Onboard Barett, Wedge, Biggs and Jessie were all in the cargo car. Wedge looked silently at the floor, "Cloud, never came." 

Biggs looked up at the ceiling, "Cloud...wonder if he was killed?" 

Barett was quick to respond, "No Way!" 

Jessie frowned and sadly said, "Cloud..." 

Biggs looked at Barett, "Say do you think Cloud's...gonna fight to the end for AVALANCHE!?" 

Barett looked back at him, "The hell would I know!? Do I look like a mind reader?" Letting his anger get the better of him he slammed his fist on the crate next to him, "Hmmph! If you all weren't such screwups...." 

Wedge looked at the angered man, "Hey Barett! What about our money..." Barett slammed his fist again, "Uh...nothin', sorry."

From above they heard some gunshots. They looked up for a moment; but thinking little of it the looked back down. Then a large thud from further up the train made them look up again. Some smaller thuds started, each one came closer to them. Then the cargo car's side door opened. For a moment there was silence. Barett got his gun-arm ready and the others drew their weapons. The sound of the train was the only sound for a few seconds. Then a figure swung in from the roof, this made everyone jump. Seeing it was Cloud brought a huge sigh of relief to everyone. As Cloud got to his feet he smiled and said, "Looks like I'm a little late."

Barett had gotten over his relief and now he felt really angry at the overall arrogance of the man standing before him. Moving toward Cloud he began to yell, "You damn right, you're late!! Come waltzin' in here makin' a big scene!" 

Cloud shrugged his shoulders, "It's no big deal. Just what I always do." 

This made Barett madder, "Shi't! Having everyone worried like that. You don't give a damn bout no one but yourself!" 

Cloud's eyes perked up and he grinned, "Hmmm.....You were worried about me!" 

If Barett could have, at that moment he would have punched Cloud in the jaw, "Wha!? I'm takin it outta your money, hotstuff!" He looked over at the others as he made is way toward the door to the next car. "Wake up! We're movin out! Follow me!" Then he abruptly exited.

As each member of AVALANCHE made their way to the door the all said something to Cloud. Wedge said, "Hey, Cloud! You were great back there!" 

Biggs patted Cloud's back, "Heh heh....Cloud! We'll do even better next time!" 

Jessie was the last to come by. Before she left, she walked to the open car door, "Be carefull I'll shut this." Slamming the door hard, she walked over to Cloud and looked at him for a second. "Oh Cloud! Your face is pitch black...", taking her sleeve she wiped the grit, that had built up from riding the top of the train off of his face. She smiled, "There you go!" As she went to the door she looked back at him, "Say, thanks for helping me there back at the reactor." Quickly she went into the other car.

Cloud stood there for a bit and then went into the next car. This one had seats like the other train they were on before had. On his left an old man was laying on the seat. "Oh...this is my house, make yourself at home.", he said matter of factly. 

Cloud moved up the seats and looked at a middle aged woman reading the paper. She looked up at him, "The terrorists that bombed the number one reactor are based somewhere in the slums." She smirked, "Blowing up a reactor, they sure put some real thought into this one. They must have a real calculating leader. I wonder what they'll do next." 

Barett looked over at them and quickly looked back. Still moving up the train, Barett glanced in his direction, "Stop actin' like a damn kid. Si'down and shu'up!" 

Cloud decided to ignore him. He walked over to Biggs who just smiled and said, "It seems this train hasn't switched to security mode yet. I'm sure that'll change by tomorrow." He looked over at Barett, then Cloud and yawned, "That sure took its toll on me...I'm gonna sleep til we get back to the station." 

Deciding to leave him alone Cloud walked over to Wedge, who was facing the window nearest to him. Looking back at Cloud he said, "Someday AVALANCHE's gonna be famous...and me too!", he paused, "Cloud! Don't ya think I have a bright future ahead of me?"

Cloud didn't want to talk, but he said, "What do you have in mind?" 

Wedge took a breath and gathered his thoughts, "All my life I've felt like nothing but a sidekick. But, after joining AVALANCHE, and tryin' to save the Planet, I feel like I can do lots of things." Happily he returned his attention to the window. 

Cloud looked over at Jessie, who was staring at a monitor. She smiled at him, "Hey Cloud, you wanna look at this with me?" He stepped closer, "It's a map of the Midgar Rail System. Let's look at it together. I'll explain it to you. I like this kinda stuff. Bombs and monitors...you know, flashy stuff." 

He turned his attention to the screen. She looked at him, "Okay, it's about to start." The monitor began to show a picture of the city. She continued, "This is a complete model of the city of Midgar. It's about a 1/10000 scale. The top plate is about 50 meters above ground." She stopped for a moment. "A main support structure holds the plate up in the center, and there are other support structures built in each section..." She began to whisper, "The No. 1 Reactor we blew up was in the northern section." Talking regularly again, "Then there's No. 2, No. 3 all the way up to the No. 8 Reactor. The 8 Reactors provide Midgar with electricity." She frowned, "Each town used to have a name, but no one in Midgar remembers them. Instead of names, we refer to them by numbered sectors. That's the kind of place this is."

The image on the screen changed slightly and a pink light went around the center pillar. She continued with her tour, "Phew...,this is next!" She pointed to the pink dots. "Look. This is the route this train is on. The route spirals around the main support structure. We should be coming around the center area, right now. At each checkpoint, an ID sensor device is set up. It can check the identities and background on each and every passenger on the train by linking it up to the central data bank at Shinra headquarters." Begining to whisper again, "Anyone could tell that we look suspicious, so we're using fake ID's." At that moment the lights went red and the whole train flashed with color. She smiled, "Speak of the devil... That light means that we're in the ID Security Check area." She went real close to his ear, "When the lights go off, you never know what kind of creeps'll come out." The lights came back on and she moved away quickly, "...anyhow, we're almost back now. That's a relief."

Cloud stepped away from her and the monitor and looked over at Barett. He was looking through the window located behind him. "Look", he said, "you can see the surface now. This city don't have no day or night. If that plate weren't there...we could see the sky." 

Cloud went over to the window and placed his hand on the sill. He looked around for a moment before saying, "A floating city...Pretty unsettling scenery." 

This caught Barett off guard, "Huh? Never expect ta hear that outta someone like you. ...you jes' full of surprises" He stood up and moved over toward Biggs, "The upper world...a city on a plate...It's 'cuz of that &^#$# 'pizza', that people underneath are sufferin'!" With anger in his voice he continued, "And the city below is full of polluted air. On topa that, the Reactor keeps drainin' up all the energy." 

Cloud looked at Barett and Biggs, who was now awake, "Then why doesn't everyone move onto the Plate?" Barett shook his head, "Dunno. Probably 'cuz they ain't got no money. Or, maybe...'Cuz they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets." Cloud nodded, "I know...no one lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't run anywhere except where its rails take it."

Sector Seven Station was old but very well kept up. There were bits of metal beam, used for track repairs, lying on the cobble stone street. Just past the station all the retired train cars were left to rust away. People said that ghosts had taken over the area, so most decided to stay out of that section of the station. Many people have come and gone through the station during its many years and some even considered it a landmark to the slums. Not that that was saying much. The train came slowly to a halt and a lone guard walked over to the doors, giving the signal to open them up. He was older, and had been doing the job there at the station for most of his career. He saw people coming and going for most of his life. He had seen a lot of things, some happy and some sad. Most of the time he decided not to notice, if he was able to. A few people got off the train and then three others. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie all moved in opposite directions and tried to blend in with the croud of people that had gathered there. Barett came out next and walked down the small steps in front of him. Cloud disembarked and the doors closed behind him. Barett shook his fist, "Yo!! Get over here, all'ya!!" Biggs and the others were quick to join their leader, while Cloud took his time. Barett was impatiently tapping his foot on the ground as Cloud joined his group on the cobble stones. Barett grunted, "This mission was a success.", he looked around, "But don't get lazy now. The hard part's still to come!" He raised his hand quickly and hit it against his gun-arm. "Don't y'all be scared of that explosion! Cause the next one's gonna be bigger than that!" He moved away from the group a little, "Meet back at the hideout!! Move out!"

As Cloud watched them go he thought to himself, (I hope that's not his idea of a motivation speach). He began to jog in their direction. Right after the station the scrap metal piles began. A greenish haze also began to build up. It could have been a fog, but Cloud wasn't too sure what it was. What he did know was that it was pretty normal for Midgar and probably not good for people. The mako powered street lights made the "fog" look more mysterious. To his left Cloud saw the gate to Sector Six, there were two guards there. He decided to leave them alone. Straight ahead was the town of Sector Seven and to his right was a pillar. He decided to check the pillar out. A young man was standing by a fence which went all around the pillar, to keep people out. Cloud had no idea what the young man was doing, not that he really cared; but he decided he would go over and talk to him. The young man didn't enjoy being walked in on. He looked at Cloud and yelled, "Hey now!! Oops!! What on earth are you doing? Just butt out......geez!" He calmed down some, "Huh? You come to see it, too?". Pointing to the very top of the pillar, "There was a bombing on top. If this pillar should come down, everyone in the slums is dust...Well, there's no point in worryin' about that." He once again motioned for Cloud to look up toward the top. With a smile he said, "Hey!! Look! It's huge, ain't it? Hey...This is a strange and wonderful place. This is my place, but you can come here when you want. Bye, bro!" Waving he quickly took his leave of Cloud.

The town itself was rather small, small compared to the whole city. There were rows of houses right next to eachother and scrap metal piled up around any corner not normally walked on. The street lights were glowing green. Like the rest of the slums the air quality had a lot to be desired. Some people were standing around talking to eachother. Listening into a conversation, a woman wanted to know if he knew the latest gossip. Cloud shrugged his shoulders and turned away. "Don't care...", he said calmly. 

She took offence, "Well EXCUSE me!" and quickly returned to her other conversation. 

Cloud noticed an energetic little boy. "Bombs, Explosions. AVALANCHE is so cool!", he said. 

Cloud decided to leave that subject alone. Making his way toward the bar, he heard some gun-shots and people being hurried out, by Barett. Cloud shook his head, (Suddle ain't he). He walked over to the big man, who looked like a sentry guarding a fort. He just grinned sheepishly, "Heh heh heh. You gonna see your little baby huh?" 

Cloud looked at him with an annoyed expression on his face, "Get out of my way!" 

Barett's expression changed to a serious one, "Hey jes' calm down. We can't have people suspectin' us." 

Cloud stood there for a moment, (Like that's possible). Barett said, "Ok! Go on ahead."

Walking up the stairs Cloud pushed the swinging doors to 7th Heaven open and stepped inside. The bar had a homish country look, something that the whole city didn't have. There was a pinball machine and a jukebox to his right. Tables in front of him and at the bar a beautiful young woman, whom he had grown up with in the small town of Nibelheim, was doing some cleaning. She had just served Biggs and the others some drinks. Cloud smiled back when his good friend, Tifa, looked up at him. A little girl ran from behind the bar over to him and yelled "Papa!" 

Cloud was surprised and he looked down at her totally confused. When she realised her mistake she turned a deep shade of red and ran to the opposite corner of the restaurant. Cloud judged her to be about four or five. She was wearing a pink dress with a yellow bow on it. From behind the counter Tifa came over to him. She was about his height and had long brown hair, tied into a poney tail at the very end. She was wearing a white top that cut off at the waste and a short black mini-skirt. Her eyes were big and brown. She looked over at the little girl, "Marlene! Aren't you going to say anything to Cloud?" 

Marlene didn't even look over in his direction. Turning her attention back to Cloud she came closer to him. Cloud smiled at her again. She gave him a quick hug and said, "Welcome home Cloud. Looks like everything went well. Did you fight with Barett?" Cloud shook his head, "No" 

Tifa looked surprised, "You've grown up. When you were little you used to get into fights at the drop of a hat."

During this time Cloud had taken the flowers he had bought on the plate and held them out. Tifa noticed immediatly, "Flowers? How nice...You almost never see them here in the slums." Her eyes opened wider, "But... A flower for me? Oh Cloud, you shouldn't have..." 

Cloud shook his head and grinned, "No big deal." 

She smiled as she accepted the gift. Putting it up to her nose she smelled it. "Thank you, Cloud. It smells wonderful. Maybe I should fill the store with flowers." She took a step back, during the discussion Marlene had come up and stood behind Tifa. Cloud looked down at her but Marlene only looked away. Tifa frowned, "Sorry Cloud, Marlene seems to be a little shy."

Cloud nodded his head, he wasn't about to force someone to talk to him. He headed for one of the back tables. As he got there he heard Barett running up the stairs. Jumping back to avoid the big man Cloud effortlessly landed in a sitting possition on the table. Marlene lit up immediatly, "Papa! You're Home!" 

She jumped into his arms and he placed her on his shoulder. Tifa smiled at him, "You all right, Barett?" 

He had a big grin on his face, "Great!" Looking at everyone around him, "Get in here fools!" He walked over to the pinball machine and stood right next to it. "We're startin' the meetin'!" 

Hitting a hidden switch the machine lowered into a secret part of the restaurant. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie complied by dropping down to the lower level. Cloud just looked around for a moment as the pinball machine/elevator came back up.

Tifa walked behind the bar once again and motioned for him to come up there. Cloud stood up and walked over to her, "Sit down.", she said. Finding a comfortable seat he sat down and placed his hands on the counter. "How about....something to drink?" 

He nodded, "Give me something hard." 

She turned around toward the bottles behind her, "Just a minute. I'll make one for you." A few seconds later, after shaking and pouring, a glass with something brown in it was placed by him. He took a few sips and placed the glass back down on the counter. She smiled, "You know, I'm relieved you made it back safely." 

Cloud smirked, "What's with you all of a sudden? That wasn't even a tough job." 

She nodded, "I guess not...you were in SOLDIER. Better make sure you get your pay from Barett." 

Downing the rest of the drink he stood up, "Don't worry. Once I get the money, I'm out of here."

He made a motion to put some gil on the bar; but she waved it off. Nodding he slowly walked away from the counter. Tifa looked at him for a second, "Cloud, are you feeling all right?" 

He paused for a moment and looked back at her, "...yeah...Why?" 

She shrugged her shoulders, "No reason. You just look a little tired I guess." Cloud stood there for a moment as Tifa went back to wiping down the bar. She looked up at him, "You'd better go down below." Then she returned her attention to the dirty counter.

Cloud walked over to the pinball machine and hit the switch. He felt a shudder as the floor rose up to him. The hidden room below was rather small compared to the shop. There was a large table and couches off in one corner, a big screen TV in another. Barett was using a punching bag while his daughter Marlene, who really didn't look like him at all, was cheering him on. Biggs and Wedge were just sitting back and talking to eachother. Jessie was on her computer. Since the news was on Cloud decided to listen to what they would say about the bombing. The news man looked grave as he introduced the President of Shinra Inc. President Shinra's image came on the TV. A recording of his voice stated, "Today a the NO. 1 reactor was bombed, the terrorist group AVALANCHE has claimed responsiblity for the bombing. It is expected that AVALANCHE's reign of terror will continue. But citizens of Midgar there is no need to fear, for I have immediatly mobilized SOLDIER to put an end to this problem. Thank you and good night." 

(What a blowhard), Cloud thought as he looked away from the screen. Cloud shook his head, (SOLDIER, this could get complicated). 

Barett stopped punching the bag, "Yo, Cloud! There's somethin' I wanna ask ya. Was there anyone from SOLDIER fighting us today?" 

Quickly shaking his head Cloud said, "None. I'm positive." 

Barett took another swing at his punching bag, "You sound pretty sure." 

Cloud smirked and placed both of his hands on his sides, "If there was anyone from SOLDIER you wouldn't be standing here now." 

This got Barett mad, "Don't go thinkin' you so bad jes cuz you was in SOLDIER." 

Cloud turned away and said nothing. Barett thinking he was being ignored started to move toward Cloud. Biggs tried to hold him back and with a mighty blow Barett knocked Biggs through the air hard into the wall behind them. Everyone looked over at the now unconscious Biggs, seeing him twitch once in awhile. Barett looked back at Cloud, "Yeah, you're strong. Probably all them guys in SOLDIER are. But don't forget that your skinny ass's workin' for AVALANCHE now! Don't get no ideas 'bout hangin' on to Shinra." 

Cloud glared angrily at Barett's, "Stayin' with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it...that's all." Walking over to the big man he stood toe to toe with him. Both men not willing to take their eyes off eachother. Both Wedge and Jessie were afraid an open brawl would start. Without blinking Cloud said, "I'm going upstairs. I want to talk about my money."

Tifa had just used the elevator to get downstairs. She saw most of the discourse between Cloud and Barett. Seeing Cloud back down brought a big sigh of relief to her. Barett, was in no mood to talk about payment. "Shucks!! ......money...". 

Cloud shook his head and started toward the elevator. Tifa ran over to him, "Wait, Cloud!" 

Barett waved her off, "Tifa! Let him go! Looks like he still misses the Shinra!" 

Spinning toward Barett and with anger in his voice, "Shut up! I don't care about either Shinra or SOLDIER!" He took a few steps toward the pinball machine. "But don't get me wrong! I don't care about AVALANCHE or the planet for that matter!" 

He was just about to leave when Tifa said, "Straighten things up with everyone for me."

Storming by her, he stepped on the machine and hit the switch once again. Returning to the bar level he paid little attention as the machine dropped back down. (Just get the money and leave. Let these guys save the planet if they want to. I doesn't matter to me.) As he was just about to go through the door Tifa called over to him, "Listen, Cloud. I'm asking you. Please join us." 

Cloud shook his head as he turned to face her, "Sorry Tifa..." 

This time she looked like she was pleading with him, "The planet is dying. Slowly but surely it's dying. Someone has to do something." 

He lowered his eyes and took a deep breath, "So let Barett and his buddies do something about it. It's got nothin' to do with me." 

Thinking quickly she used one last tactic, "So! You're really leaving!? You're just going to walk right out ignoring your childhood friend!?"

Cloud was taken back for a moment, "How could you say that!" he exclaimed. 

She looked down, "......You forgot the promise, too." 

A puzzled look came to his face, "Promise?" he said quietly. It wasn't quiet enough. 

She moved closer to him, "So you DID forget. Remember.....Cloud it was seven years ago." 

Deep inside his mind he tried to remember back seven years. At that time they were both far from Midgar, back home in Nibelheim. (That year I joined SOLDIER. So what happened back then?) A picture of the town well came to him. (The well?) Tifa tried to jog his memory, "Look, the well. Do you remember?" 

He remembered the image of his younger self, smaller then, weaker. He was wearing green pants and a black tee shirt. His hair was still spikey then but it was longer. Some of it was tied into a poney tail. Winter was almost over but it had decided not to give up without a fight. The night was clear. With little light coming from the buildings the stars in the sky could be seen clearly. An occassional wind made Cloud shiver. "Yeah... back then. I thought you would never come, and I was getting a little cold."

In his mind, the bar faded around him and all he could see was that stary night seven years ago. A lifetime ago from his perspective. He was sitting alone ontop of the well waiting for her. (Shoulda known this wouldn't...) "Sorry I'm late." He turned to see Tifa, wearing a nice blue dress walk over to him. He smiled at her and she returned the favor, "You said you wanted to talk to me about something?" 

She sat down next to him and eagerly waited for his response. Taking a moment to gather his thoughts he said, "Come this spring...I'm leaving this town for Midgar." 

Her eyes dropped and a frown appeared on her lips, "...All boys are leaving our town." she said quickly. 

He stood up and faced her, "But I'm different from all of them. I'm not just going to find a job." With sudden exclamation in his voice he said, "I want to join SOLDIER. I'm going to be the best there is, just like Sephiroth!" He began to walk behind the well to get higher on it. 

Without changing her tone or expression she said, "Sephiroth...The Great Sephiroth." Thinking for a moment she looked up at Cloud, who was now on top of the well, "Isn't it hard to join SOLDIER?" 

He nodded, "I probably won't be able to come back to this town for awhile." She made a gesture with her hands that he didn't quite see, "...huh?" 

She dismissed the subject with another question, "Will you be in the newspaper if you do well?" 

He wasn't really sure how to respond to that. He just said, "I'll try."

Thinking quickly Tifa looked up at him and said, "Hey, why don't we make a promise?" This took Cloud by surprise. "Umm, if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind......You'll come save me, all right?" 

He looked at her slightly confused, "What?" 

She felt slightly embarassed, "Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me. I want to at least experience that once." 

This time, noticing how vulnerable she was he repeated his last statement, "What?" 

With a smile on her face and some anger she yelled, "Come on--! Promise me----!" 

He smiled and nodded at her, "All right...I promise." Far above a shooting star moved across the night sky of Nibelheim.

The bar came back into focus for him. Looking back at Tifa he looked down at the floor. She looked at his expression, "You remember now, don't you...our promise?" 

He slowly nodded, "I'm not a hero and I'm not famous. I can't keep......the promise." 

She just went on, "But you got your childhood dream, didn't you? You joined SOLDIER." With a sense of finality she said, "So come on! You've got to keep your promise......" 

Before she could continue Barett climbed up from below. He had overheard most of their conversation and decided to get involved again, "Wait a sec big-time SOLDIER! A promise is a promise! Here!!" 

He tossed some bills on the floor by Cloud. Picking them up he noticed that 1500 gil was in the stack. He smiled, "This is my pay? Don't make me laugh." 

Tifa's face lit up, "What? Then you'll...!" 

Cloud nodded, "You got the next mission lined up? I'll do it for 3000." 

Barett's face turned red, "What......!?" 

Tifa ran over to Barett, Whispering in his ear, "It's ok, it's ok......We're really hurting for help, right ?" 

He turned to her, "Uh......ugh......That's money's for Marlene's schoolin'......" Putting his arms together with a sense of finality, "2000!" 

Cloud nodded and Tifa smiled at him, "Thanks, Cloud."


	4. Complications

**Complications**

Consciousness slowly came back to Cloud, his eyes opened and he sat up slowly, leaning against the corner of the wall. For the rest of the evening after his conversation with Tifa, he had a few more drinks; but mostly sat quietly away from the others. There was a dull pain in his side from how he slept, not that he would complain, and his head hurt slightly, that was from the alcohol. Shaking the cobwebs out of his head he slowly stood up and made his way for the elevator.

Everyone had already gotten up before him. The large screen TV that once had the news on it, now was full of color bars. Hitting the switch he had to hold onto the machine as his balance was tested. (I hate waking up early.), he thought quickly as the machine came to a stop. As he moved away from the wall a smile came to his face as Tifa greeted him. "Good Morning Cloud. Did you sleep well?" Her enthusiasm woke him up the rest of the way.

Quickly he took a step forward and said, "Next to you, who wouldn't?" She began to blush, but quickly said, "I don't know what you mean." Trying to change the subject she looked over at Barett and said, "I'm going this time."

Cloud wasn't too thrilled about this. (This is too dangerous) but he knew the decision wasn't up to him. Turning his attention to their leader he walked toward him. During this brief time Barett had a confused expression on his face. As Cloud approached he looked up at him, "Our target is the Sector 5 reactor. Head for the station first. I'll fill you in on the train." He looked around for a moment and quickly added, "Yo Cloud! Before the next mission I got somethin' I wanna ask you!" He paused for a, "I, uh....I don't really know how to use materia. I'll give you the materia you found. Just teach me how to use it."

Cloud took a deep breath and sighed. He looked at Barett, "Ok, I'll explain it." Barett grinned at him. The explanation Cloud gave was brief, but to the point. "The weapon you have, as well as armor has slots for materia. When you're ready to use it, take it out and place it in the slot of your choice. I'm sure you already know how to cast a spell with it?" Barett nodded and continued to listen intently. Cloud began to speak again. "Ok...now when you have materia your status changes. Most magic materia will give an increase in magical power. However it will take away from your physical strength. So materia is kinda like a double edged sword. Just try out some things and see how they work."

Barett had listened calmly through most of that speech. Once it was over he inwardly shook his head, "Shi....! What's this 'It wasn't that tough' crap! I'm clueless......Well, you handle the Materia then!"

When Tifa was sure Cloud was done she looked at him and said, "Cloud! I got a message from the Weapon Shop man upstairs. He has something he wants to give you. Don't forget!" Turning toward Marlene, who had been cleaning the bar from her position on a chair, "Marlene, you watch the store while we're gone."

Cloud looked surprised at this decision but Marlene grinned and said, "All right! Good luck." With that said all three of them moved out into the street.

The first stop the group made was in a shop just down the road, to the right of the bar. Cloud had thought of stopping in last night but he figured the place to be closed. As they walked in the shop owner took no notice of them. He just stood there looking at his supplies and said, "Ahh...Another slow day...If this keeps up, this store's goin' under...Can't sell any really good medicine in a slum like this." Cloud impatiently tapped his foot on the ground. The shop owner quickly turned around and had a large smile on his face. "Oh!! Look at this! This doesn't happen everyday. You a.......customer? Yes!! Welcome!! We sell! We buy!"

Cloud had half a mind to walk out on the guy, if he didn't need the supplies he would have. With the money he had been paid and with some more he had taken from the guards he fought during the raid in reactor 1, they bought some new materia, 'Fire' and 'Restore', and some potions. The shop keeper was very glad to take their money, almost too glad, but Cloud figured it had been awhile since he had any real business. Once he packed away his new items they went over to the weapons shop.

The weapons shop was one of the only multi-floored buildings in the immediately area. The first floor was the shop and a target range. There was a man with jet black hair inside the cage, checking out the accuracy of each weapon. Across from him was the shop keeper. Tifa and Barett bought some grenades and Cloud took care of buying the group some new armor. At the end of the room a young boy was taking a shot with a handgun. Each time he fired the weapon he ran over to his target to see where it hit. After another moment of standing around they moved off to the second floor.

The room was full of crates. There were some small ones and some large ones. A fenced in area in front of them had about six people inside. Two children were practicing some new moves on each other, much to the overall amusement of the adults nearby. Cloud turned his attention to a man directly to his right. There was a materia orb on the ground, the man nodded for Cloud to take it. Picking it up he held it in his hand for a moment. ('All' materia) he thought. (This definitely will come in handy.) 'All' materia was a very common but powerful accessory materia. Unlike magic materia it had no ill affects on the person using it; but what it did allow was for multiple targets to be hit by a spell meant for only a single one. With this addition to a slow growing collection, Cloud was sure it would simplify some fights.

The man that gave the materia to him reached back and pulled out a box. Placing it where the materia was he told Cloud to take the contents. Cloud smirked as he pulled an ether, a tonic for the mind, from the wooden box. Thanking the man Cloud waved for the others to leave with him. Once they left the shop it was time they all started toward the train station. As before there was a green mist around most of the slums. Not much changes down there. The plate keeps sunlight out, the mist never leaves and overall feel of this place was negative.

A large crowd of people had gathered around a young man that Cloud had remembered was thrown out of the bar last night by Barett. He had red hair and was wearing black pants and a white shirt. He was looking at the ground trying to gather his thoughts. As Cloud, Tifa and Barett approached, he lifted his head and spoke. "I'm leaving. Goin' far away." He looked at the people near him and smiled, "But when I come back I'm gonna be a better man! This is good bye!" He glanced over at Cloud, "Hey! Childhood friend! You better take real good care of Tifa!" Before he could change his mind he turned quickly and ran for the station.

For the most part everyone in that crowd looked surprised to see the young man go. Another young man, who had been with him yesterday, looked over at Tifa, "Ah... Johnny's gone. You look a little disappointed. I don't like to say it myself but, I'm just a lonely guy when I'm not drinking." He looked at the ground, "I hope he doesn't get hurt. That's worries me the most."

Deciding not to waste any more time Barett started to walk toward the station. Cloud and Tifa quickly followed. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were already waiting for them at the platform. As the Barett and the others came into their sight, they all jumped onto the train. The same man, who let them out the night before was standing by the door. "Dawn comes and things never change. You all be carefull ok."

Cloud was the last to walk on the train. Tifa had waited for him at the entrance, while Barett went on ahead. Many of the people that were on the train last night were there again, including the bum that was sleeping on the seats. Barett walked to the center of the train car and looked at everyone. "Yo! Looks like this ain't no private car! So split up!"

Biggs, Wedge and Jessie quickly exited to the car in front of them, as did most of the passengers on that end. There was one man, in a brand new red suit who decided not to listen. Although he was there last night, Cloud did not take notice of him; Barett on the other hand, remembered an off hand comment the man had made. The man in the suit looked over at everyone and under his breath said, "....hoodlums again. God, don't I just have all the luck..." before taking a seat next to him.

Barett didn't exactly hear what the man said, but he was sure it was directed at him and it wasn't nice. He decided to have some fun. Moving quickly toward the front of the train, he moved past the man and looked at the door. "You say sumthin'?", he asked casually. The man in the suit began to sweat but did not dare respond. The gun on the mans right arm was what held his attention now. Without hearing a response, Barett turned toward the man and forcefully repeated, "I said, you say sumthin'!?" He walked over to the now unnerved man and place his gun arm on the shelves above the seat. Barett slowly looked around the car, the bum at the other end looked thoughtfully back at Barett; Cloud and Tifa just stood there in silence. Quickly returning his attention to the man he said, "Yo! Would you look at that! It got empty aluva sudden. What's goin' on?"

Whether it was a sudden surge of bravery or a departure of good sense the man looked up at Barett. Sweat was beading all over his forehead and his voice squeaked as he spoke. "I... it's empty because of... g, guys like you..."

This took Barett by surprise, but only for a moment. He slammed his gun arm agains the metal shelf making a large clang. What was left of the man's resolve had already been used up saying what he just said. The noise nearly made him jump out of his skin. Inwardly Barett had begun to laugh, outwardly he pointed his gun arm at the man. "You... you've seen the news, right? AVALANCHE says there'll be more bombings. Only devoted employees like me would go to Midgar on a day like today." He moved the gun a bit closer to the man, "You workin' for Shinra?"

The man had lowered his head to look away from Barett's gun arm. His body was shaking all over, he had never been quite so scared in his life. "I won't give into violence...and I won't give up my seat either."

By this time Tifa had seen enough. Cloud was content to leave this matter to Barett because he knew that he wasn't foolish; drawing too much attention to themselves would only hurt their mission. Tifa ran over to the other end of the train and very crossly glared at Barett. "Barett!!" she yelled forcefully.

He quickly looked up at her and seeing her expression told him he had gone too far. He looked down at the man, who was still shaking. "&$#%!! You lucky ^$#$,!" Without looking back he started to move towards Cloud. Tifa quickly apologized for Barett's behavior and walked back toward the other end of the car. Cloud shook his head as he noticed the huge grin on Barett's face. When he was sure no one was paying attention to them anymore he again looked at Barett, "So what are we going to do now?"

Barett looked at him slightly annoyed, "Shit! the hell you so calm about? you bustin up my rhythm..." A sudden jolt made them all brace one ond the hand rails. Cloud looked out the window and saw the platform start to move away from them. Tifa sighed, "Seems like they just finished connecting the cars. We're finally leaving."

Cloud once again asked, "So what's our next target?"

Barett laughed, "Hah! Listen to Mr. Serious-about-his-work! Awright....I'll tell ya! Jessie probably already told you, but there's a security check point at the top plate. It's an ID scan system checkin' all the trains."

Tifa quickly added, "Which Shinra is very proud of."

Barett nodded, "We can't use our fake ID's any more."

There was a quick buzz from the intercom on the wall. A friendly voice said, "Good morning, and welcome to Midgar Lines. Arrival time to Sector 4 station will be 11:45."

Tifa quickly looked at her watch. "That means we only got three more minutes to the ID check point."

Barett started for the door, "Alright, in three minutes we're jumpin' off this train. Got it!?" Both Cloud and Tifa nodded at him. Barett sat down in the seat closest to him and tried to relax. Tifa ran toward the front of the car and stood in front of the monitor. She called back to Cloud, "Cloud, come over here! Let's look at the Railway Map Monitor."

Cloud began to walk toward the front of the car. He looked down at the old man, who had just shifted his body to make himself more comfortable. He looked up at Cloud, "Hmm....? You're the only ones that talk to me or come to my house. I'm impressed." Cloud smirked and continued toward the front of the car. He took a moment to check out the man, Barett had scared earlier. He looked terrible to Cloud, (This guy is pathetic) he thought. The man looked up at Cloud, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Don... don't worry about me." He began to gain composure over himself.(oh man, oh man, oh man...!! I'm gonna brag to everyone at work about this...)

Finding this man a waste of time Cloud walked to where Tifa had been patiently waiting for him. He stood behind her and looked thoughtfully over her shoulder. She felt his warm breath on her neck and it tickled her. She noticed from the logs that Jessie and Cloud had seen this movie before. "Hmm, it looks like you've seen this already...It's alright. Come a little closer."

Cloud out of habit shrugged his shoulders and took another couple steps closer to her. He placed one hand on her shoulder and moved his head closer to hers. As she got comfortable the lights went dim and the red scan light went on. She looked up at Cloud, who had taken a few steps away and said, "That's odd. The ID check point was supposed to be further down."

Over the intercom came a computerized voice. This one was monotone, but the message was anything but that. "Type A Security Alert!! Unidentified passengers confirmed....a search of all cars will be conducted. Repeat!! Type A Security Alert!! Unidentified passengers confirmed....a search of all cars will be conducted."

Barett quickly rose to his feet. Tifa looked over at him, "What's happening?" He shook his head. He heard the door in front of him open and Jessie ran inside. He looked at her, "What's goin' on?!!"

She quickly looked at Cloud, "We're in trouble. I'll explain later. Hurry! Get to the next car!!" She quickly went back the way she came. Barett tried to hold the anger out of his voice. ""^%#@%! Someone blew it...", he yelled.

The intercom came back on. The voice from before said, "Unidentified passengers found in car #1. Preparing for lock down." Barett took the lead, "Lets Go! Keep it up!!" Quickly they ran to the next car.

As Cloud closed the door behind him, he heard a loud clicking sound from the door. (We got out of there just in time.) He looked to Barett who was standing in the center of the train. The intercom voice said, "Car #1 locked down. Upgrading to level 2 warning." Everyone knew that meant this car would be locked soon as well. Biggs looked back at them and yelled. "Hurry!!" Wedge nodded, "They're gonna lock the doors, sir!" The intercom came on again, "Unidentified passengers found in car #2. Preparing for lock down." Jessie began to run toward the other end of the car. "Just run! Changing to plan 2!" They all began running for the opposite door.

Inside the next car the intercom said, "Car #2 locked down. Upgrading to warning level 3." Just as suddenly s the lights went out before, they came back on again. Barett looked at Jessie questioningly, "Awright! We clear!?"

She shook her head, "Not yet, they're starting another search. If we're caught we're done for." This response did not please Barett or the others. She continued, "But don't worry. If we move up the train, car by car, we should get past it." Once again the intercom came on. Cloud was ready to break the little box by this point. "Unidentified passengers moving to front of train. Currently tracking possition." Without another word, they all ran toward the front of the train.

During their trek through each of the cars, only a handful of people bothered to take notice of them. Cloud figured that people trying to sneak on trains was common-place. Of the few people that did notice thought it an nuisance. In the last car before the engine room Barett ran over to the doors. "Alright!! We made it!!" He opened one of the side doors, "Yo! This way! We're gonna dive out here!"

As Cloud moved toward Barett he noticed that the Shinra guards were taking no notice of them. Looking a bit closer he saw that they were all sleeping soundly. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were all disguised as other people. As Cloud came to the end of the car, Tifa looked back at him. "Scary...huh?" Cloud's eyes widened. "Too late to be saying that now. Why did you come along anyways?" She looked away from him, "Because..."

Barett interrupted them, "Hey you two! There ain't no time for that!"

Cloud realized that Barett was right. He quickly looked back to Tifa. She smiled at him. "Yeah!! I've made up my mind." She placed her hands at the open doorway. The wind blew her hair around. Without looking back she yelled, "Watch closely. I'm gonna jump!" With that she threw herself out of the moving train.

Cloud ran over to the door. He couldn't see Tifa anywhere. He looked at Barett, "You don't care if I go first?" Barett waved him off, "A leader always stays till the end. Don't worry 'bout me, just go!" Cloud placed his hands similarly to where Tifa had put hers just moments before. Just as he was about to jump Barett yelled over to him, "Yo! Don't go gettin' your spikey-ass hurt! It's only the beginnin' of the mission!" Cloud shrugged him off and threw himself out of the train.

Barett walked over to the door. He looked over at Biggs and the others, "Later, you take care of the rest!" With that he ran for the door and jumped into the tunnel.

It seemed to Cloud like an eternity from the time he jumped out the door, to the time he landed. There was a rush of wind as he was in the air; when he hit the ground he rolled a few times to cushion his fall. As he stood up he saw Tifa running toward him. He took a moment to catch his breath before turning his attention down the track to where Barett would be coming from. A few minutes later they saw Barett running toward them. "Good, so far everything's going as planned." He started to move down the track some more. "Better not let your guard down till we get to the Sector 5 reactor. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie got everything ready for us. So MOVE it." He pointed back towards the direction the train had come from. "Well, the reactor's just down this tunnel!"

They started to move in the direction that led back toward sector five. There was no station in that sector, which was why they had to jump off of the train. There were a few automated security devices in the area. Barett found taking them out easy because his weapon was a long range one. Tifa tried to stay out of the way the best she could. Eventually they came up to a section of the tunnel that had a beam of light all around it. Cloud looked it over for a moment, "Those light beams are the Shinra's security sensors. We can't go any further." Taking a quick look around he found a ventilation shaft leading underneath their position. In the distance he could here footsteps, (probably some soldiers looking for us.) Taking a few steps toward the shaft, Barett came up beside him. "That's one damn tiny hole. You tellin' me to squeeze into that to get under the Plate? No way!" The footsteps started to get louder. "Yo, Cloud, what're we gonna do?"

Looking at both Tifa and Barett he just pointed down, "We're going down.", he said quickly. Barett took another look down the hole. "But, damn man, that thing gives me the chills." Cloud went first into the shaft, followed by Tifa and very reluctantly by Barett.

President Shinra had been livid since the attack the night before. He wanted to find out who was responsible for the destruction of a reactor, his reactor. His city, the perfect city, was now blemished, and now so was his pride. His phone rang and he slowly picked it up. "Yes...A disturbance...near sector five...send some troops there right away and evacuate all unnecessary people." He hung up the phone and stood up. (It looks like their luck is about to run out.)

The sound of their walking in the vents was deafening to Cloud, but there was no other choice. After climbing down a few ladders and avoiding security the best they could, they finally made it to the area just outside of reactor 5. There were catwalks all over the place and beneath that was a fifty meter drop down into the slums before. Cloud looked down for a moment and was glad he wasn't afraid of heights. Looking ahead he saw two ladders and a series of vents that were big enough to crawl through. Wedge was standing by the left most ladder. Barett started to move in his direction. Wedge looked over at them, "Cloud, this way. The reactor is up this ladder." Tifa smiled at Wedge as they climbed up. Wedge turned around and went back to being on guard.

Although the vent was a good size for Tifa and Cloud to crawl through, Barett's big size made it a tight squeeze for him. As they went through they could here some cursing from the large man. Tifa held back the urge to giggle. Barett was more than relieved when they got out of the vents. Waiting for them was Jessie. She wasn't on guard, but rather just leaning against the wall she was closest to. She looked at Cloud and frowned, "I'm sorry. The ID scan problem on the train was all my fault. I made your ID card special...So that's why it happened. I put my heart into making it. But I failed."

She expected Cloud to be angry with her, but he just smiled. He waved it off and that brought both a blush and a smile to her face. "Next time, I'll give you something more decent. I'll be back at the hideout in the research room workin' on it." As she began to head toward the vents she waved at everyone. Cloud continued to smile. When she disappeared they decided to move on.

After another ladder down they walked across another catwalk to where Biggs was. He nodded quickly at them, "We're gonna pull out now. We'll meet up at the hideout. Cloud, we're countin' on you to blow the reactor!" They watched him run toward the ladder they came from, and climb back up it. Barett wasn't too happy about having to crawl through another tight vent, but he knew there wasn't much choice. The only good aspect of this for him was that the target was just passed the vent. This time he went first, quickly followed by the others.

Once again they were confronted by the strong smell of mako. Cloud realized that each time he came inside a reactor the smell was getting worse. Although it was probably in his mind, it was a feeling that he couldn't shake. They were on a large platform; next to it was a large pipe that led down into a section that looked very familiar to Cloud and Barett. (At least the design is the same), Cloud thought, (Can't possibly get lost this way.) Across from them was a large stair case, at the top was a freight elevator and at the bottom was the way to the reactor core. Cloud looked at the pipe and started to slide down to the floor below. Tifa followed and was very careful not to fall off. While she held on to the pipe Cloud went down as fast as he could. Almost at the bottom there was a shear drop in the pipe so Cloud placed his feet on the pipe and jumped off.

It wasn't long before he was joined by the others. Barett looked at Cloud with a grim look, (Showoff) he said to himself. They went to where the stairs ended and walked through the door. In the first reactor there was a faint green glow, very similar to the glow in sector seven. In this reactor the glow was more blue. There was a crack in one of the coolant pipes so steam was spewing out, it did not seem to block their path so the continued on.

Once again Cloud was able to see a large mako pool. The warmth he felt from the first reactor was here as well. He walked slowly trying not to let himself go unalert. Up ahead was the core. Tifa was in the lead and Barett was in the rear. As they moved closer the world seemed to go black around Cloud. His head felt like it was being crushed from all sides. Tifa turned around in time to see Cloud place his hands on his head and collapse to his knees.

Cloud looked around him. (Where am I? This isn't Sector five reactor? No...this is...) He could see he was in another reactor. In front of him were two people. Around him he could hear the sound of gears spinning. There was a long sword next to the people in front of him. One of the people, (Tifa?), he thought. It was Tifa, but she was younger. She was wearing a white blouse with a brown skirt and hat. She was kneeling over someone. He listened to her, "Papa...Sephiroth!" She sat up some, Cloud could see the tears in her eyes. "Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he!?" Her sadness had suddenly become anger. He watched her fist begin to shake; the tears in her eyes falling freely, she looked up toward the ceiling. "Sephiroth.... SOLDIER... Mako Reactors... Shinra... Everything!" She stood up and grabbed the sword next to her, "I hate them all!"

The last thing he saw before things faded back to normal was Tifa running into the next room with the sword. The pain in his head bagan to lessen and slowly things back to focus. He could hear Barett yelling at him distantly. "Damn, man. Get ahold of yourself!" He slowly blinked his eyes, although the pain was gone Cloud found it difficult to concentrate. Tifa was kneeling next to him, "You all right?", she asked, the concern in her voice was apparent.

Cloud looked up at her, "....Tifa." He started to get up slowly. She thought he was going to continue so she looked thoughtfully at him. He shook his head as he got to his feet. "No...forget......Come on, let's hurry!"

Tifa and Cloud moved over to the core itself. Once again Cloud was assigned the task of planting the bomb. This time he was ready for an alarm to go off and was very surprised when none came. He started walking back down the catwalk, with Tifa right behind him. With a quick nod Barett and the others began running back toward the top level of the reactor. The trip was much like the first time, a few more monsters attacked them heading up than down; but this time security was almost non existant. Barett figured it to be because Shinra had all the guards protecting the entrance instead of the interior of the reactor. Cloud wasn't sure if that was right, but it sounded like a fair assumption.

At the top level they noticed the main door was closed. To their left was an open area with a computer terminal. Tifa looked to Barett and motioned for him and Cloud to follow. They walked over to the terminal. Cloud walked around one side while Tifa and Barett took the other. Tifa looked at Cloud, "Jessie said we all have to the buttons at once."

It took a few tries, either being too early or too late on Cloud's part; but they finally got the timing down right. The door suddenly but slowly openened up, and they all began to run. There wasn't too much time left on the explosive. The slums below could clearly be seen from their position. Although it didn't look too bad, Cloud knew that was a long fall below. "This way!", Barret commanded. Barett ran ahead and took a left. The plan now was to fight the few guards at the entrance and make their way to a train station. It came as a surprise to them all to see twenty plus Shinra guards blocking their path.

"Shinra soldiers!? SHIT! What the hell's goin' on?" Barett raised his gun arm to the newcomers.

Cloud put it together, (No wonder there was no security), "...a trap..." he said matter of factly. The sound of footsteps was now heard behind them. They were getting louder. Everyone turned their attention to the direction from which they came. Barett's jaw dropped as he recognized the man that came. "President Shinra?"

Tifa had never seen the man before, but her first impression of 'the most powerful man in the world' was less than she expected. (This is the man who has caused so much suffering) "Why is the President here?", was all she could manage to ask.

President Shinra continued to walk forward. His confidence in the situation was quite apparent. He was going to enjoy this. "Hmm...so you all must be that...what was it?"

Barett had gotten over his initial surprise and now his pride had taken over. "AVALANCHE! And don't ya forget it! And you're President Shinra huh?"

Cloud inwardly shook his head at Barett. Taking a step forward he stated, "Long time no see, President."

President Shinra looked at the man who spoke. Although he couldn't remember the young man his glowing eyes told him much more than a name would. "...Long time no see? Oh... you. You're the one who quit SOLDIER and joined AVALANCHE. I knew you were exposed to Mako, from the glow in your eyes... Tell me, traitor... what was your name?"

Cloud didn't expect Shinra to remember him so he calmly stated, "Cloud." President Shinra smiled, "Forgive me for asking, but I can't be expected to remember each persons name. Unless you become another Sephiroth." He fondly thought of his old field general. "Yes, Sephiroth... He was brilliant. Perhaps too brilliant."

A sudden burst of fear filled Cloud's mind. He took a step back. "Sephiroth.....?" Barett didn't understand the conversation and quite frankly he didn't want it to continue. "Don't give a damn 'bout none of that! This place's goin' up with a big BANG soon! Serves y'all right!"

President Shinra began to laugh. "And such a waste of good fireworks, just to get rid of vermin like you..."

Barett began to shake with anger, "VERMIN? That's all you can say... VERMIN! Y'all Shinra're the VERMIN, killing the planet! And that makes you King VERMIN! So shu'up jackass!"

President Shinra saw how angry Barett had become and casually looked away. "...You are beginning to bore me. I'm a very busy man, so if you'll excuse me... I have a dinner I must attend."

The calmness of Shinra made Barett even madder. He ran right over to Shinra. He was very tempted to end the pathetic looking man's life right there. The only problem was the soldiers behind him. All he could manage was, "Dinner!? Don't gimme that! I ain't even started wit' you yet!"

He smiled at the enraged man in front of him, "But, I've made arrangements for a playmate for you all." Before Barett understood the sentence President Shinra snapped his fingers. For a moment nothing happened, but for only a moment. Then the sound of a motor could be heard. Within seconds a large robot passed by Cloud and stood in the middle of them all. Unlike the guard scorpion this robot looked much tougher. It had multiple gun turrets and weapon slots. The two large arms and its overall bulky size made it look clumsy; but the way it moved through the air told Cloud that was only the way it looked. Barett clinched his teeth, "The hell is this!?"

"Meet 'Airbuster,' a techno-soldier. Our Weapon Development Department created him." He took a long look at Tifa and smiled, she looked away from him. "I'm sure the data he'll extract from your dead bodies will be of great use to us in future experiments."

Cloud had never heard of such a thing, "...Techno-soldier?" He continued to look at the robot, trying to figure out a way to beat it. President Shinra started to chuckle as a helicopter landed next to him. "Now then, if you'll excuse me." As he climbed onto the skid Cloud ran toward him; but it was too late. As the helicopter began to climb, Cloud stopped running toward it, "Wait, President!" He stepped foward and tride to make the President notice.

"Yo, Cloud! We've gotta do somethin' about him!" Cloud turned his attention back to the matter at hand. Airbuster started to move toward Barett and Tifa. Tifa wasn't sure what to make of all this but she didn't like the way that thing looked. "Help, Cloud!"

Cloud moved quickly behind the machine. With someone being able to get it from behind, due to the limited room on the catwalk, the advantage was theirs. Tifa continued to glare at airbuster. She looked quickly at Cloud, "THIS is from SOLDIER?" He quickly shook his head, "Now way! It's just a machine."

Barett began to smirk, "I don't care what it is! I'm gonna bust him up!" Very quickly he took aim and fired at the robots head. Sparks flew as his bullets from the assault gun did some quick damage. Once again Cloud had to resort to using bolt spells, hoping that one would over-load its systems. Tifa had the 'Restore' materia, so it was her job to take care of any wounds that may come.

Cloud quickly found out that attacking this machine's rear wasn't as easy as he had hoped. More than once he was hit by a counter attack that sent him flying back. Tifa and Barett weren't having much more luck. Using its mass and speed it knocked Barett over and sent Tifa ducking for cover. Barett and Cloud had their fill of this machine along with everything else that had happened. Barett couldn't control his anger anymore. He ran toward the robot, aimed his assault gun at its body, and started to fire. In mostly a daze started to increase his shooting speed, faster and faster. The barrel of the gun arm began to glow bright red. With one final shot the built up heat exploded, in a fireball, toward the machine. The affect was traumatic, the armor pannels that surrounded its chest were blown off.

Seeing the opening Cloud, with explosive speed, ran toward the robot. He raised his sword high above his head and jumped into the air. As he came down the sword went clean through the robot's body. Electricity began to surge around the robot. Beginning to shake, the engine that held the machine in the air failed and it crashed into the catwalk, exploding on contact.

Cloud was too close to the explosion and the catwalk crumbled beneath his feet. He looked quickly for some way to stop from falling, and at the last instant was able to grab a hold of a piece of sticking out pipe. Tifa and Barett were on the other side of the gap. Tifa rushed over to the edge; but Barett stepped back. "It's gonna blow! Let's go, Tifa!"

She couldn't believe what she just heard, "Barret! Can't you do something?"

He slowly shook his head, "Not a damn thing." Tifa looked over the hole and realized it was just too far for them to reach Cloud. She began to cry, "Cloud! Please don't die! You can't die! There's still so much I want to tell you!"

Cloud smiled at her. Even though it didn't look good to him, he wasn't about to show that to her. "I know Tifa....." Barett looked over at him, "Hey, you gonna be awright?"

Cloud began to laugh. He took a look down below. ".....You worry about yourselves! I'm all right, but take care of Tifa." Barett nodded, "...Alright. Sorry 'bout all this."

Cloud felt his grip beginning to give. "Stop talkin' like this is the end!" Barett smiled at him, "Alright then, later."

As Cloud began to get a better grip the bomb in the reactor went off. There was a jolt that shook Cloud off the catwalk. It seemed like slow motion to him. Slowly he began to sink away from everything above. He could see Tifa run over to the edge and look helplessly down at him. He just smiled at her, with a relieved smile, and at that instant time seemed to go back to normal. Soon he couldn't see Tifa or Barett anymore, then he couldn't see the catwalk. With a sudden jolt throughout his entire body, he couldn't see anything.


	5. Remembrance

**Remembrance**

Cloud had no idea where he was, there was only black all around him. He could hear the sound of his own breathing, giving him the only hint that he was still alive. (What was that, a fifty meter fall? I gotta be lucky.) He couldn't feel anything else, his body seemed unresponsive to him. "...You alright?", a voice in the distance said.

He waited for a moment, wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. The voice asked, "...Can you hear me?" Cloud realized the voice was real. ".....Yeah....." he said blankly.

The voice seemed more relaxed now. Almost with a laugh it said, "Back then... You could get by with just skinned knees....."

Cloud became confused, (What is he talking about?) "What do you mean by 'back then'?"

As if the voice ignored him, "What about now? Can you get up?" Cloud still wanted an answer. ".....What do you mean by 'that time'? .....What about now?" he asked a little more demanding.

The voice became more authoritative, "Don't worry about me. You just worry about yourself now." As much as he didn't want to admit it, Cloud knew he should worry about himself. ".....I'll give it a try."

Once again he concentrated on making himself move. Finally he felt his body begin to respond. A different voice, one full of surprise, yelled, "Oh! He moved!"

The more he tried, the more his body began to come under his control again. The voice he had been hearing began to encourage him, ".....How about that? Take it slow now. Little by little....." The second voice called out to him, "Hello, hello?"

Cloud suddenly felt more alert, "Hey... who are you?" This time there was no response. Only the second voice was there now, repeating "Hello, hello?"

Slowly Cloud opened his eyes. The bright light made him squint until his eyes got readjusted to the light. There was a wonderful smell in the air, it took him a second to realize they were flowers he was smelling. (Flowers? In Midgar?) He looked around and saw a young woman kneeling next to him. He slowly started to sit up. He remembered seeing her before, up on the plate after the first reactor blew up. She was looking him over, making sure he was alright, the expression of concern clearly on her face. She smiled as she spoke to him. "You okay?", he quickly nodded, "This is the church in the Sector 5 slums." She looked up at the roof, a big hole was right above his position, "You suddenly fell on top of me. It really gave me quite a scare"

Cloud was still looking up at the roof, ".....I came crashing down?"

The young woman nodded, "The roof and the flower beds must have broken your fall. You're lucky."

Cloud looked around him, seeing all the nice flowers. He quickly got up and brushed his clothes off, sadly looking at the ones he landed on. "Flower bed....is it yours?" He felt really bad about what happened, "Sorry about that."

She waved it off, "That's all right. The flowers here are quite resilient because this is a sacred place." She looked toward the entrance of the church. "They say you can't grow grass and flowers in Midgar.", she paused, "But for some reason, the flowers have no trouble blooming here." With a huge smile she said, "I love it here." When she finished speaking she moved over to the other end of the flower bed and began checking up on some of the newer plants. Cloud carefully walked out from the flower bed, trying his hardest not to step on any, (I caused enough damage as it is.) She didn't look up at him when she spoke again, "....So we meet again."

Cloud knew he saw her, but he had forgotten where. After a moment she looked up at him, "Don't you remember me?" Cloud decided to take a guess, "Yeah, I remember....you were selling flowers." Her face lit up, "Oh, I'm so happy! Thanks for buying my flowers." Cloud just gave a quick nod. She decided to change the conversation, "Say, do you have any materia?"

Cloud nodded, "Yes. Some." He wondered why she asked the question, "Nowadays, you can find materia anywhere." She smiled, "But mine is special. It's good for absolutely nothing." He looked surprised, "....Good for nothing? You probably just don't know how to use it." She quickly shook her head, "No, I do....it just doesn't do anything. I feel safe just having it....it was my mother's." She looked up toward the sky, with a thoughtful expression, but quickly returned to her conversation. "Say, I feel like talking. Do you feel up to it? After all, here we are meeting again, right?"

Cloud nodded, "I don't mind." She smiled, "Wait here. I've got to check my flowers. It'll be just a minute." She quickly ran over to another set of babies and began looking them over, occasionally pulling out a weed. After a few moments she looked up, "Just a little bit longer." She suddenly realized something, "Oh! Now that you mention it....we don't know each other's names, do we? I'm Aeris, the flower girl. Nice to meet you." She once again smiled at him.

Cloud couldn't help but smile back. "The name's Cloud. Me.....? I do a little bit of everything."

She giggled a little bit, "Oh.....a jack of all trades."

Cloud nodded, "Yeah, I do whatever's needed." She begins to giggle again, he looks himself over, seeing if something ripped, "What's so funny? What are you laughing at?" She shook her head, "Sorry.....I just...."

Before she could answer him, the sound of a floorboard creaking made them both turn around. Although she still had a smile on her face, Cloud noticed that she was uneasy by the newcomer who had just walked in. Cloud looked him over for a second. The man was almost as tall as he was, with brown hair that seemed all over the place. He was in a blue suit, but part of his shirt was hanging out. To Cloud it looked like he was at a bar recently. Aeris tried to continue the conversation, "Sorry, bad timing on my part."

Cloud decided to see why Aeris' attitude changed so suddenly, he started toward the entrance of the church. After walking a few steps Aeris called out to him, "Don't let it get to you!" He shrugged his shoulders. Before he could go any further Aeris said, "Say, Cloud. Have you ever been a body guard?" She gave a little smile to him, "You DO, do everything, right?"

Cloud turned toward her, smoothing his hair with his right hand. "Yeah, that's right." She nodded, "Then, get me out of here. Take me home." Cloud smiled at her, "Ok, I'll do it....but it'll cost you." She smiled back, "Well then, let's see......" She quickly thought of something, "How about if I go out with you once?"

Cloud didn't even have to think about it. He accepted the offer, with a quick nod, and told her to stay behind him with a wave of his hand. He started toward the man, who until this point had done nothing but watch. "I don't know who you are, but...." A sudden feeling of nausea came over him. He had to refocus his thoughts, "You don't know me....?" The voice he heard earlier in his head said, "I know you..." A second wave of nausea hit him. This time he realized who the man was. "Oh yeah...I know you." He pointed to the blue uniform, "That uniform....."

Three Shinra guards, who were standing outside of the church, overheard the conversation and decided to give some back-up toward their boss. They were chuckling at what they thought would be the complete misfortune of the young man inside. Noticing Aeris they began to whistle. They laugh as one of them says, "....hey, sis, this one's a little weird."

Cloud began to get angry. He gripped the handle of his sword, "Shut up! You Shinra spy!" The guards became a bit more serious, "Reno! Want him taken out?", they asked their boss.

Reno rubbed his chin, "I haven't decided yet." Cloud removed his sword and took a defiant step forward. Aeris placed her arm on his shoulder, "Don't fight here! You'll ruin the flowers!" Cloud looked around and resheathed his sword. She motioned for him to follow her towards the back of the church. (Maybe there is an exit back there.), he thought as they started to run.

Reno began walking toward the back of the church. He knew there wasn't an exit back there, at least none that he knew of. What was concerning him now was the man with the girl, more specifically his eyes. "They were....mako eyes." During this time he had managed to unwittingly walk through the flower garden. Looking down, then back towards the detail assigned to him. They were laughing, "Yeah, all right. Back to work." Quickly he started for the door, stopping after a few steps. He yelled over to the soldiers, "Oh!" He pointed at the garden, "And don't step on the flowers....."

All three guards burst out laughing. One said, "Hey Reno, you just stepped on them!" Another nodded, "They're all ruined!" The third spoke while trying to stop himself from laughing, "You're gonna catch holy hell!" Reno just shook his head, (What a bunch of morons.)

The room they were in now, was an old stairwell to the bell tower. The bell had long since disappeared, and the integrity of the building had a lot to be desired. In some places, grass had already overgrown where the floor should have been. There was a gaping hole from the ledge they were standing on, to where the stairs were. Below was a basement, with a few rotted boxes in various corners. A small missile was standing up against the two ledges. (It must have been leftover from the war, in case Wutai managed to invade.) After a moment of examining the room, the sound of the soldiers starting to come toward them became louder. (Well it looks like this is going to be the only way out of here.), Cloud thought. Without thinking he jumped over to the ledge with the stairs. As he landed he felt the old wood crack slightly, but it held firm. Cloud motioned for Aeris to join him. She looked down into the hole below, but reluctantly agreed to jump. Getting a running start she ran and leapt off the ledge and into the waiting arms of Cloud on the other side. She smiled as he brought her away from the edge.

Hand in hand Cloud led her up the stairs and over to another gap in the floor, this one wider than the last. Cloud felt Aeris resisting him motions to move forward. From below Reno and the soldiers ran into the back. Quickly looking around, Reno spotted them on the floor above his position, "There they are, over there!"

Cloud looked down at Reno, a cruel smile was on his face, "Cloud...that one!" She didn't have to finish the sentence. With a quick nod, "I know...looks like they aren't going to let us go."

Aeris began to become frightened, "What should we do?"

Cloud quickly looked across at the other side of the gap, then turned back toward Aeris. With a confident smile on his face he said, "Well we can't let them catch us can we? Then, there is only one thing left." He let go of her hand and jumped across easily to the other side. He motioned for her to follow once again, "Aeris! This way!"

Aeris took a timid step forward, this jump was not only further away but it was higher up. She just shook her head. Cloud realized that the jump would hard for some people. He felt dumb for trying to ask her to do that. He quickly unsheathed his sword. "Alright. I'll hold them off." She nodded, "Right. Make sure they don't get through!"

Reno wasn't able to hear what was being said above him, but he didn't like the fact that they could possibly get away from him. (That's exactly what I need. Heideggar looking over my shoulder.) "The Ancient is getting away! Attack! Attack! Attack!" The soldiers immediately raised their weapons and opened fire on Aeris' position. Jumping forward she felt the edge of the floor give way quickly. She felt herself hit a pipe was heading down towards the basement below. "Eaygh!", she screamed out as she slid down the pipe. Cloud ran over to the edge, "Aeris!"

Reno laughed inwardly, "Think we killed 'em?" He looked at the soldiers with him, "They shouldn't have put up a fight, I say. " He motioned for one of the guards to check where Aeris had fallen to.

Aeris was unhurt from the fall. Sliding down the pipe was probably the only thing that made sure of that. The soldier was surprised as he saw Aeris standing in the middle of the room, her staff held out in front of her. She yelled up, "Cloud, help!"

Cloud knew he was too far away to get to her in time, "Damn!" He had to think fast, (There must be something....) He started to stare at some barrels that were on the roof rafters. "What's that?" A small smile appeared on his lips, "Aeris! Hold on a minute." He quickly made his way up the stairs and went to the rafter closest to his left. Looking down, he could see the soldier right below him. He pushed the barrel from behind, letting gravity take care of the rest.

Aeris saw the barrel coming, and stopped, making the soldier do the same. With a crash the barrel broke apart on the soldier, knocking him both to the floor and unconscious. "Thanks, Cloud." She began to run towards the stair case.

Reno shook his head with disgust at the foolishness of the soldier. "You two...", the soldiers looked over at him, "Stop them from getting out of here." Both Soldiers nodded, and Reno went back towards the main entrance. Aeris was just about at the stairs when the second soldier blocked her path. Cloud noticed it too, he ran towards the barrel on the other side, and like the first one, he pushed it over. It landed on the stairs without breaking and hit the soldier from behind as it rolled down. With a cry, the guard went unconscious.

Aeris looked up and smiled at Cloud, who just shrugged. She made her way up the stairs, quickly followed by the last guard. Because of her dress, running was much harder and soon the guard had almost caught up. Cloud found a barrel close to the stairs the two, below him were on and sent it down. As it hit the stairs and started rolling, the third guard stood there with a surprised look. Realizing that he couldn't move out of the way it hit him, sending him back to the edge of the stairs.

Aeris quickly made her way over to the ledge and closed her eyes as she jumped across. When she landed safely she ran up the stairs, to the rafters, where Cloud was waiting for her. Making their way toward the front of the church, Cloud saw the hole in the roof, that his fall had made. He pointed at it, "Aeris, this way!"

Below, Aeris saw her flower bed and the places where Reno had stepped in them. For a moment she was mad at him, but she let it go and continued to follow Cloud toward the exit. He took a moment to see if there was anyone outside; when he was satisfied he jumped through the hole and waited for Aeris to join him.

After she made it safely outside, she decided to take a quick break and sat down on the roof. Cloud sat nearby, leaving his sword out in case company came. After a few moments Aeris began to laugh, "Ha ha.....They're looking for me again."

Cloud looked surprised, "You mean it's not the first time they've been after you?"

Aeris shook her head, "....no...."

Cloud looked down below, "They're the Turks." She glanced back inside the church. "Hmmm....." He looked back in her direction, Aeris' attention was on his face. "The Turks are an organization in Shinra. They scout for possible candidates for SOLDIER."

Aeris looked surprised, "This violently? I thought they were kidnapping someone."

Cloud shrugged again, "They're also involved in a lot of dirty stuff on the side. Spying, murder....you know."

Aeris didn't want to hear any more about them. "They look like it."

Cloud scratched his head, "But, why were they after you? There must be a reason, right?"

"No, not really. I think they believe I have what it takes to be in SOLDIER!"

Cloud got the feeling she was hiding something, but considering it none of his business, he let it go. "Maybe you do. You want to join?"

Aeris looked the other way, "I don't know...But I don't want to get caught by THOSE people!"

Cloud nodded, "Then let's go!" The couple gets up and starts jumping from roof top to roof top and over pieces of large debris. Cloud decided to see how fast he could do it. Nimbly leaping from one piece to the next Cloud began to get further and further away from Aeris. Before he got too far she yelled over to him, "Wait...Wait I said!" Cloud quickly stopped.

Looking back he could see her carefully making her way over to him. (That dress must be really hard to move in.), he thought as she gave herself a three count from one jump to the next. It took a few moments but she finally caught up to him, sweating and out of breath. She tried to talk while catching her breath, "Slow...down. Don't leave me...."

Cloud just stared at her for a moment, "Funny...I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER." Aeris glared at him, with a angry look, "Oh! You're terrible!" Cloud started to laugh and soon Aeris joined him. After a few moments, they regained their composure. "Hey...Cloud. Were you ever in SOLDIER?"

Cloud was taken back by the question. ".....I used to be. How did you guess?"

She looked right at him, "...Your eyes. They have a strange glow..."

Even though Shinra headquarters was in Midgar, he knew not many people have ever seen a SOLDIER before. "That's the sign of those who have been infused with Mako...a mark of SOLDIER." He thoughtfully looked at her,"But, how did you know about that?"

That was another subject she didn't feel like getting into right away. ".....oh nothing."

Cloud didn't want to accept that, "Nothing....?"

Her voice became stern, "Right! Nothing!" She smiled again, "Come on, lets go! Bodyguard!" This time Cloud went slower, allowing Aeris to keep up with him.

About a quarter mile down the road from the church was where Cloud and Aeris ended up going. A civilian was walking toward the sector five gate, located just after the church, and Cloud decided to wait until he was out of range. When he couldn't see anymore, Cloud quickly made his way down toward the street below. He turned around and waited for Aeris, who was gauging her jumps carefully again. A huge look of relief came over her when she was standing on the solid road again. "Whew! Finally made it off! Now what...." She looked around, trying to get her bearings. When she found the direction she wanted to go in she pointed, "My house is over here. Lets hurry before they get here!"

Cloud stayed behind Aeris and let her lead the way. He had never been in Sector five before so that, and watching her back, were the reasons why he followed. There was the occasional thieves, and mako monsters running around. A couple tried to attack them, but soon found out that was a mistake. On many occasions the monsters ran off with some deep wounds. (Probably get attacked by their own later on.) Cloud thought. Soon they approached the entrance to the center of Sector five.

Although the buildings were made from the same materials as the ones in Sector seven there was a difference in how the place felt. Cloud was surprised by the hominess of the place. People were out talking with each other, children were playing in the streets. Aeris waved to all the people they met along the way through the center. Cloud was surprised as to how warmly she was greeted. Soon they came near a river and Aeris followed the path down the road toward the sound of a waterfall. As they approached her house, Cloud was shocked by what he saw.

Unlike the other homes in Midgar, this one was like a regular house from a small town outside of the city. It wasn't run-down, or made of scrap like the ones he was accustomed to seeing. The paint wasn't peeling, the windows weren't broken. It was almost charming. The waterfall behind the building just added to the scene. Aeris noticed his surprise and led him over to a ladder, that led to a garden. Once on top they walked over to the edge and looked at everything. (How is a house like this possible?), he thought to himself. After a few moments in silence, Aeris led him back toward the house.

The inside of the building was just as nice as the outside. There were antique plates hanging on the walls, and there was a nice dinning room set in the middle. A set of stairs were in the back. (If everyone had a house like this, the no one would want to live on the plate.) The smell of a roast in the oven started to make Cloud hungry. Aeris yelled into the kitchen. "I'm home, mom!"

An older woman walked out from the kitchen. She stopped when she saw Cloud standing by the wall. Aeris smiled, "This is Cloud, my bodyguard."

Elmyra became concerned, "Bodyguard.....? You mean you were followed again!?" She quickly checked over her daughter, "Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?"

Aeris shook her head, "I'm all right. I had Cloud with me."

Elmyra acknowledged him with a nod. "Thank you, Cloud." Seeing the motions from her daughter, she started upstairs.

Once they were alone, Aeris looked at Cloud, "So, what are you going to do now?"

Cloud's first obligation, to take her home was now done, he decided it would be best to let the others know he was alright. "...Is Sector seven far from here? I want to go to Tifa's bar."

Aeris smiled, "Is Tifa.....a girl?"

Cloud nodded, "Yeah."

Aeris took a step forward, "A girl....friend?"

Cloud looked surprised, "Girlfriend?" He had never thought Tifa was interested in him at all like that. They were just friends. He began to shake his head, "No way!"

Aeris giggled, "You don't have to get THAT upset!" She took another step forward, they were only a few inches apart now. "Well that's....nice." Taking a step back, "Let's see, Sector 7? I'll show you the way."

Cloud shook his head, "You gotta be kidding. Why do you want to put yourself in danger again?"

She shrugged him off, "I'm used to it."

He looked at her critically, "Used to it!?" He decided to change his tone, "...Well don't know....getting help from a girl...."

She gave him the same look as she did when he made fun of her on the rooftops, "A girl!! What do you mean by that?! You expect me to sit here and listen, after hearing you say something like that!?" Cloud realized he said the wrong thing. She called upstairs, "Mom! I'm taking Cloud to Sector 7. I'll be back in awhile."

Elmyra quickly came back downstairs, "But dear....I give up. You never listen once you made up your mind." She looked at the clock, "But if you must go, why don't you go tomorrow? It's getting late now."

Aeris nodded, "Yeah, you're right mom."

Elmyra looked up the stairs, "Aeris, please go make the bed." Aeris smiled and quickly went upstairs. When she was gone, Elmyra looked over at Cloud, "That glow in your eyes....you're from SOLDIER, right?"

Cloud nodded, "Yeah. Rather I used to be."

Elmyra felt really bad about saying this, Cloud knew that afterward. "...I don't know how to say this but....", she looked toward the door, "Would you please leave here tonight? Without telling Aeris." Cloud stood motionless for a moment. She added, "SOLDIER...the last thing Aeris needs is to get her feelings hurt again."

Cloud smiled at Elmyra and started for the stair case. He walked up quietly, just in time to see Aeris coming out from the room at the end of the hallway. She met him as he turned the corner. "You need to go through Sector 6 to get to Sector 7. Sector 6 is a little dangerous so you better get some rest tonight." Cloud nodded and started for the far room. As he reached for the door she called out to him. When he turned around she was smiling again, "Good night."

After she walked down the stairs, Cloud still saw her in his mind. He didn't want to take her with him; but he didn't know how to leave without her, "Oh man."

Cloud decided he should not fall asleep here, but because of the fall he felt far more tired than he realized. Soon he dozed off, letting darkness take him without much of a fight. "....seem pretty tired...." Having the silence broken by that voice again almost startled Cloud. The voice seemed content, "I haven't slept in a bed like this....in a long time."

Cloud thought about it for a moment. It had been a long time for him too, "....oh, yeah."

The voice continued without heeding the interruption, "Ever since that time." Cloud tried to remember the last time he was on a soft bed. He pictured a small house, far away from the confines of the city of Midgar. There were two beds next to each other, in the homey one room cottage. An older woman, with blond hair like Cloud's, was standing in the kitchen working on a nice meal. The rest of the house was furnished nicely, but as Cloud remembered, it wasn't too extravagant. He was laying down on one of the beds haphazardly. The woman turned away from the stove and looked at him, "My, how you've grown." With a large smile she added, "I'll bet the girls never leave you alone."

Cloud didn't look over at her, "...Not really."

She paced a little bit in the kitchen, "...I'm worried about you. There are a lot of temptations in the city." She looked over at him again, "I'd feel better if you'd just settle down and had a nice girlfriend."

Cloud sighed, "...I'm alright."

She ignored him, "You should have...an older girlfriend, one that'll take care of you." She smiled at the thought, "I think that would be the perfect type for you."

Cloud sat up a bit, "I'm not interested."

Slowly things faded away and Cloud found himself back in the guest bedroom of Aeris' house. He looked at the clock, (4:00), "...I must've fallen asleep." He slowly got up, trying not to make too much noise. Every time a board creaked on the floor he would stop and listen to see if he woke anyone up. "Sector 7's past Sector 6....I should be alright by myself..." Carefully opening the door Cloud made is way down the hallway, past Aeris' room, and then down the stairs. When he reached the first floor he quickly, but quietly, made his way out of the house, leaving Aeris behind.


	6. The losses begin

**Chapter Five: The Losses Begin**

Sector five was a quiet section of the slums to begin with; but this early in the morning it was like a ghost town. The streets were deserted, save the occasional piece of trash that came rolling down the street. The artificial lights only made this place feel more surreal then it already did. Cloud had made sure he shut the door quietly as he walked away from Aeris' house. Something in the back of his mind was telling him to take her with him but he felt the danger was just too great. He noticed the weapon shop man still had his door open. (Danger never sleeps and neither does he), Cloud thought as he walked inside. The man immediately grinned when he saw the young Ex-SOLDIER walk up to the counter. "Take care of yourself. It's the law of the slums. But to do that, first you need weapons, right?" Cloud shook his head quickly and looked over the selection.

He decided on a few hand grenades and put them in his pack. (May just need them to buy me some time) he mused as he walked out of the shop. Though there was no sunrise or sunset in the slums of Midgar, Cloud knew the people would be getting up soon. He decided it was best to get going. Without making another stop Cloud passed through the rest of the small town and quickly made it to the road along side the wall. Instead of taking a right, which would bring him back to the church; Cloud took a left. His jaw almost dropped when he saw Aeris standing there. "You're up bright and early", she said with a slightly amused tone.

Cloud was completely surprised by the fact that she got here before he did. At first he didn't know what to say. "How could I ask you to come along when I knew it would be dangerous?"

Though she understood his intentions she wasn't about to let that comment go. "Are you done?" Cloud could clearly see he was not going to be able to persuade her into going home. He scratched his head, in a slightly defeated way. Aeris smiled, "You have to go through the slum in sector six, to get to Tifa's 7th Heaven." She waved in the direction of a large hole, made in between two large sections of wall. "I'll take you there. Come on!" She quickly ran into the hole and disappeared on the other side. Cloud tried to call out to her, in the slight hopes that she would stop. When it didn't happen he just shrugged and followed.

About twenty feet from where he had come in Cloud saw Aeris waiting. She looked around the area as he came up beside her. When she got her bearings the two started off as quickly as possible towards the other side. There were places Cloud was sure he could climb but he knew Aeris couldn't, he followed her lead. Some of the monsters that lived in the debris piles heard them go by. On more than one occasion Cloud and Aeris had to fight them off. With great skill and ease he was able to kill more than a dozen. Aeris provided some 'Cure' spells for whenever Cloud let his guard down. He noticed right away that they were working well together. As for her offensive skills she swung her rod with confidence at any monster that happened to get too close. Though he could tell she was nervous from the fighting she kept a cool head. (She must be used to this.)

It took about twenty minutes to make it to the other side. The monsters thinned out on the other side of the highway. Cloud looked back at the broken down road. (It must have been a good source for goods and supplies before this plate was put up. Now its just falling apart and full of monsters.) Not waiting any longer the couple walked passed the exit into a more serene setting.

Cloud had never seen such a run down old playground in his life. Though he never really played on one as a child, Nibelheim never needed one. He had seen more than his fair share in some of the places he traveled to. Aeris looked around for a moment, her eyes lighting up as she remembered hours of playing as a little girl. She points to a large gate on the other side of the playground. "The gate to Sector 7's in there."

Cloud smiled, "Thanks. I guess this is goodbye. You gonna be alright going home?"

Aeris immediately put her hands on her face, trying to sound weak and helpless, "Oh, no! Whatever will I do?" She looked at him a bit more seriously, "...isn't that what you want me to say?"

Cloud had to admit he was being a bit over protective of this young woman. She had already proven to him that she could take care of herself. "Well would you like to go to Sector 7 for a little while?"

She smiled, "I could do that. But won't I be in your way?" Aeris turned away for a moment.

Cloud didn't get what she was saying, "What do you mean in the way?" He thought she was talking about Tifa (Nah. That can't be it) Then he thought she was talking about AVALANCHE. He eagerly awaited her response.

She could tell he was trying to figure out her last statement. She just smiled and dismissed the topic with a quick, "Nothing!" She placed her hands behind her back and looked back to the old playground in front of her. "Can we take a break?" Cloud nodded slightly and she took a few steps to a slide in the shape of a large Moogle. Moogles were types of faeries that existed in legend only. Her eyes widened at the memories of her sliding down that slide many times in the day. "I can't believe its still here." Without looking back she quickly went around its back and climbed to the top, sitting right on the head. She was beaming, "Cloud get over here!"

Cloud walked over to the Moogle and found a quick way to the top. Getting a quick start he jumped onto one of the steps and vaulted the rest of the way to the top, only his hand was used to keep some balance. He sat next to Aeris in a careless fashion. Aeris looked thoughtfully up at him, "What rank were you?"

"Rank?" He looked at her slightly confused again.

She nodded, "You know, in SOLDIER."

Finally understanding, "Oh I was...", he felt a weird sensation come over him, only for a second, but he had a response, "First class."

She looked away for a moment, "Just the same as him." Cloud could sense a bit of sadness in her voice.

He could tell this line of conversation was going to be a bit tough on her, but the door was open. "The same as who?"

"My first boyfriend." She tried not to sound too sad at the face that statement brought to her.

Cloud glanced back at her, "You were...serious?"

She shook her head, "No. But I liked him for awhile."

Cloud smiled, feeling a bit better, "I probably knew him. What was his name?"

Looking away from him, "It doesn't really matter."

Cloud and Aeris sat on the Moogle for a few moments in silence. Cloud knew she didn't want to talk about an Ex anymore than he wanted to hear about it. For now he was content just to enjoy the silence her company had given him. A small rumbling behind him made them both turn around him. The gate to Sector 7 opened and a small, but elaborate chocobo drawn carriage made its way into the park. The driver took no notice of the two sitting on the slide and expertly steered the large yellow bird in the direction of the town. Getting a clear view of the back, Cloud was shocked to see who standing at the edge. "Huh? Hey, back there..." Aeris looked up at him. "That girl in the cart was Tifa? Where was she going? She looked kinda odd..."

Aeris looked in the direction the carriage was going to. (That's not a good place for her to be going into.) She jumped off the slide and began to follow the carriage. Cloud was too stunned to stop her. "Wait! I'll go on alone! You go home!" She obviously wasn't going to listen to him. Soon she disappeared down the path, leaving Cloud standing on the slide shaking his head. (It's gonna be one of those days.) He jumped off the slide and followed the path that Aeris had taken.

Cloud stopped for a moment as he took in the site that greeted him. It was another town, the one in Sector 6. He had heard this area was called the "Wall Market". It was a place of whores, gambling and crime. (What the hell is Tifa doing in a place like this?) By the inn Aeris was waiting for him. He could tell she was slightly nervous about being there. "This place is scary in a lot of ways. Especially for a girl. So we've gotta find Tifa fast." Cloud nodded, he had come to the same conclusion without being told.

The man standing out the door, at the inn eyed both of them as they started walking down the road. He yelled out to them, "Hey you two. How about some rest? We've got a beautiful room, how bout' it?" Cloud decided it wasn't the best time so they moved on. There were shops all around. On his left there was a pharmacy with a small shack attached with a sign that said "Item". There was a few houses on his right and a dress shop further down. A young man, probably a hired thug came up to them. He smiled as he eyed Aeris, "Hey boy! You shore got a good lookin' heifer there! Take her to the Don's place, and you'll make a mint." Cloud resisted the urge to beat the man because he could see Aeris didn't care about what was said about her.

They both decided to check out the other side of the street for some information. He could see a materia shop which made up a dead end and a small side street on the other side. An older man, overweight, was looking rather sheepish. Cloud figured this guy would know something. The man looked up at the couple, quickly becoming embarrassed he looked away. "I just can't make up my mind. Mmm." Cloud's expression told the man what his next question would be. "Huh, about what?" He hid his face in shame, "Hmmm, don't make me say it. It's the shop down on the right."

There had to be something special about that shop the man was talking about. Cloud started in that direction, Aeris followed right behind him. Cloud's suspicions proved correct as "Honey Bee Inn" greeted them. (This sector of town is sickening.) Cloud thought. There were men all around, a regular Shinra soldier, practically drooling through the blue mask he wore. Another man, another thug was bashing stuff up in the back end of the road. (I guess he couldn't get in.) Pushing past a few people Cloud walked over to the two men that were watching the door. Cloud decided to ignore the one in the suit, he looked too snobbish to give any information. The older man next to him seemed like he was in heaven. (He should be willing to talk.)

Cloud looked at the older man directly. He happily turned towards Cloud, "Welcome!! Even unpopular dweebs, like you may meet your destiny here!!" He smiled, "You looking for a girlfriend too?"

(Ah, What the hell?) Cloud thought, "You know a girl named Tifa?"

The man's eyes widened. (Maybe this kid isn't a dweeb after all.) "Hey, you're pretty fast. Tifa's our newest girl." Cloud smiled inwardly. The man continued, "But, unfortunately, she's having an interview right now. Here at the Honey Bee Inn, it's customary for all the new girls to be taken to Don Corneo's mansion." Cloud thought the man seemed jealous. "Don Corneo is a famous dilettante. Now he wants to settle down and is in the market for a bride."

Cloud really didn't want to hear that. He quickly turned away from the man and ran back towards the town. Aeris had waited over by the corner, not wanting to go anywhere near those guys. From the look on Cloud's face she could see he was worried. Both of them made their way to the other end of the wall market. Cloud was really beginning to worry about Tifa. (Why would she be in a place like this? Is there something I don't know about her?) Without really noticing they passed the first gate into the Corneo Complex.

There was one guard waiting by the door. He had a small machine gun in his hands, which he immediately raised as Cloud approached. If Cloud had wanted to he would have taken out the man, but something told him to be more subtle. The guard sneered at him. "This is the mansion of Don Corneo, the most powerful man on the wall market." He noticed Cloud's mako eyes and changed his tone slightly, "Look the Don's not into men. So don't let me catch you round here again..." Aeris had stepped up from behind Cloud. The man smiled, "Hey, you got another cute one with you!"

Aeris had come up with a plan. Quickly pulling Cloud aside she whispered into his ear, "Hey this looks like the Don's mansion. I'll go take a look. I'll tell Tifa about you."

She was about to start forward when Cloud said a bit too loud, "No!! You can't!!"

She turned around, "Why?" She knew she could take care of herself. (Why is he being so protective?)

Cloud quickly pointed around the area, "You DO know...what kind of...place this is, don't you?"

She realized he was right about this one. (What choice do we have?) "Then, what am I supposed to do? You want to go in with me?"

(Of course I want to go in there.) "We'll being a man, that'll be pretty hard. Besides if I bust on in there it'll cause too much of a commotion." Aeris listened to him, ("Well being a man..." That's it!!) She began to giggle. Cloud continued, "But, I just can't let you go in alone...Oh man....." He looked down at the ground, "First, we'll need to find out if Tifa's alright..." Looking up Cloud noticed Aeris was laughing. (Now isn't the time to laugh.) "What's so funny Aeris?"

She knew Cloud wasn't going to like this, "Cloud, why don't you dress up like a girl?" She made sure to add, "It's the only way."

"WHAT?!" (Of all the stupid ideas!) He shook his head adamantly saying that wasn't going to happen. Aeris paid no attention to his protests. She just smiled at the doorman who was trying to listen in on their conversation. From the confused look on his face she knew he was unable to do so.

"Just wait. I've got a cute friend I want to bring." The doorman's expression lightened up as she said that to him. Both Cloud and Aeris could tell what he was thinking; it made Cloud more uncomfortable.

Cloud could tell that arguing with Aeris wasn't going to change her mind or the fact that she was right. He looked at her pathetically, "Aerith! I can't....."

Aeris looked adamantly at him, "You ARE worried about Tifa, aren't you? Then come on, hurry!" Without another word she ran back down towards the entrance. After a moment of standing there Cloud followed.

On the outside Aeris told Cloud they needed to get a dress. There was a dress shop down the road from the mansion; something Cloud had noticed on the way up to the Don's house. He said nothing and followed her lead as they made their way down to the center of the town again. Cloud hesitated as he walked into the dress shop. Aeris was already inside looking at all the dresses on the racks. Her expression told him that there was nothing quite his size there. She looked over at the woman behind the counter. "Excuse me! I'd like to get a dress."

The woman looked sadly back at her, "Umm, it might take a little time. Will that be all right?"

Because there were plenty of dresses in there Aeris was confused, "What's the problem?"

Taking a deep breath the woman looked over at all the dresses on the racks, "Well, my father, the owner, has been in a slump lately. You see, he makes all the dresses." Aeris nodded, "And, where is your father?" she asked.

The woman looked away, too embarrassed, "He's probably plastered at the bar." Aeris could tell this was hard for the woman to talk about. She smiled confidently at her, "So... You're saying we can't get a dress unless we do something about your father?"

The woman nodded slowly, "Yes. I'm sorry. He's caused so much trouble." It was at that moment did the words that Aeris said sunk in. With sudden surprise she exclaimed, "You'd help me bring him back?"

Aeris nodded, "Well, if don't do something, we don't get a dress, right?" The woman was beaming, "Really!? Please help my crazy old dad. I just don't know what to do anymore...."

Cloud had been hoping the shop owner wouldn't be able to make a dress for him. His hopes died when Aeris said, "All right, we'll do something. Let's go, Cloud!" She led the way back out into the street. Cloud was feeling his masculinity falling by the second. (I can't believe I'm gonna do this...)

The bar was located back towards the Don's house, next to the gym. In front of it were two men standing in front of a pile of garbage, complaining the the weapon shop keeper was collecting junk. Looking at the pile Cloud had to agree with them. Walking into the bar the couple noticed many people talking happily in conversations. (Just trying to get some enjoyment out of this life), Cloud thought. Off in the corner they saw an older man by himself nursing a beer. There was a good pile of bottles on the floor by him already. Aeris motioned to the man telling Cloud that she thought he was the one. (Great a drunk is going to be making me some clothes...). They casually walked over to the man. Aeris stood next to him, smiling, "Excuse us, are you the father of the girl at the Clothing Store?"

The man turned around to face the attractive woman who just spoke to him. He smiled, "I own the Clothes Shop...but I ain't your father."

She could easily tell he had too much, "I didn't say that..." Before she could finish Cloud forcefully inturupted, "Make me some clothes."

Whirling around to face the new voice, the man nearly fell out of his stool. He angrily glared at the young man, "I don't make men's clothes. And I don't feel like makin'anything right now." He quickly turned toward his beer, taking another gulp out of his now luke warm beer.

Aeris looked over at Cloud, "Cloud, you wait over there for a second. I'll try to talk to him." She pointed to the bar, "Why don't you go over there and have something to drink."

Cloud could see she was annoyed at his gruff comments toward the dress maker. He obediently walked towards the bar and bought three shots. Sitting down on a stool he downed all three quickly and faced the direction Aeris was in. (I can't believe I'm doing this...)

When Cloud was a good distance away she began to talk to the old man again. "You know mister. He always said that just once, he'd like to dress up as a girl." She smiled in Cloud's direction. He shifted in his bar stool uncomfortably as if she was planning his execution. "So, that's why I wanted a cute dress for him..."

The old man was dumbstruck. "What!? A tough looking guy like that?" He couldn't believe that a guy like Cloud would ever be into something like that.

Aeris grinned, "So, how 'bout it? Will you make him one?"

The man gulped another sip of beer. "...might be interesting. I was gettin' a little bored just makin' regular clothes."

Aeris let out a small laugh, "Then you'll do it for us?"

The old man nodded, "Yeah, all right. What kind of dress you want?"

Aeris looked over at Cloud. (This dress had better look real good on him for this to work.) "Something that feels soft...and that shimmers."

The old man smiled, "Hmm, got it. Y'know I got a friend that has the same taste as him. I'll go talk to him."

Cloud saw that Aeris thanked the man. (Great....she got the dress...oh man...) She waved to him, letting him know they were going to leave. Putting a few gil on the counter he left behind Aeris. The old man was grinning as they did.

Seeing that they had some time to wait for the dress it was decided to do some shopping. Cloud figured they should go to the weapon's shop first. Having the best equipment possible was key for survival. It was a bit cramped inside. There was fencing all around. One man was at the counter while the other was off to the side, working on a tank. (What the...how'd a tank get in here?) Cloud thought as he walked up to the counter. There was a good selection of weapons, a new glove 'metal knuckle' for Tifa and a full metal staff for Aeris. There was also some new armor. Making these purchases Cloud gave Aeris, who was waiting outside, the new staff and armor. She smiled holding the weapon in her hands. It was a bit lighter than her old weapon but she knew it was much stronger. They started back towards the town.

The next stop on the shopping spree was the materia shop. Opening the door they saw the shop keeper sitting on a coushin on the other side of the counter. He looked at Cloud and Aeris and shook his head, "Sorry we're closed." Looking at Cloud, "Hey man. Got a minute? I need to talk... man to man."

Cloud looked at the owner. He shrugged his shoulders, "What is it?"

The materia shop owner was elated, "Really! I really appreciate it." He looked at Aeris, "......I'm sorry but, young lady? Would you turn the other way, for a second?"

Aeris wasn't sure how to take that, "Why.....?" quickly asked. Cloud looked at her. In a stern tone he said, "....Aeris."

She sighed, "Gosh!" and turned around, walking to the other side of the shop. The shop owner looked at her, "I'm sorry, lady." He looked back at Cloud, "Now here's the thing. Do you know that vending machine in the inn?" Cloud nodded and the man began to talk again, "I'm itchin' to know what they're selling in it. I just can't ask a girl to go get it." He checked to see if Aeris was trying to listen in. "What? Why don't I buy it myself? Well to tell you the truth, I got in a fight with the guy at the inn and can't go there anymore. Come on, so how 'bout it?"

Cloud thought it over, (Well it'll be some time before the dress is ready. Ah why not.) "I'll go."

The man smiled, "Good, thanks. I'll be waitin' here when you're done." He looked over at Aeris who started over to them. She said flatly, "Finished?"

Cloud nodded and the two left the shop. Cloud walked over to the inn and stepped through the door. There was a woman behind the counter who smiled as he walked in. Aeris was confused about why they were there. Paying 10 gil they got a room with two beds and Cloud said it would be a good time to rest. Aeris nodded and when she walked into the room Cloud went over to the vending machine. "He means this?" Taking out some extra gil he put in 200 and let the machine drop the item. Putting it into his pack he went into the room and took a quick nap.

The man in the materia shop was surprised to see Cloud walk back in a little while later. Cloud looked evenly at him, "I got it."

The man smiled, "Oh, really!!" He looked at Aeris, "Hey!"

She shook her head, "Geez." Walking back to her corner in the store she waited like she did before. The man looked back at Cloud, "And, what was it?"

Taking the box out of his bag Cloud handed it to the man. He shook his head angrily, "A protein drink set. That Jerk. I'm gonna do so much more business than him, his head'll spin." Reaching behind him he took a small item from behind the counter, "Thanks, bud. I'm motivated now. Take this, it's not much..."

Cloud looked at the diamond tierra and frowned, (He's right this isn't much.) As he began to leave Aeris ran up behind him. The last place for them to go was the item shop. Cloud decided that he was hungry and went into the restaurant on the way there. Aeris said she wasn't too hungry so he sat up at the counter by himself. The staff on the other side asked what he'd have. Looking around at what everyone else was eating he decided, "I'll have today's special."

The waiter behind the counter nodded, "One today's special comin' up. In this store, you pay first. It'll be 70 gil."

Cloud took the necessary money out of his wallet and the waiter thanked him. He waited for a few minutes until the food was placed in front of him. Because he hadn't really eaten in awhile he at the meal quickly, washing down what he didn't chew with water. "It was alright."

The waiter smiled, "Thank you. Here's an item coupon for the Pharmacy. You can exchange it for one item there. We're out of coupons, so we stopped giving them away. Watch for our NEXT promotion!"

Feeling full and happy Cloud and Aeris went down to the item shop. The clerk was busy putting things on the shelves and didn't notice them standing there. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Cloud and spun around. "Whoa! Why don't say somethin' if you're standing there." Cloud took out the coupon he had just gotten, "Oh, you have a coupon. Then please select any one medicine you like."

Cloud looked at the choices and took the digestive medicine. He also purchased some status curing items and potions. Deciding the dress should be ready, he left the pharmacy and started towards the dress shop.

The man in the dress shop smiled as the Cloud and Aeris walked into the shop. He grinned at Cloud especially, "Oh, you're here. It's ready. Go try it on."

(I can't believe I'm doing this.) He took the silk dress and looked it over as he walked into the dressing room. Another customer was looking at him slightly confused. (Yeah you and me both lady.) He stepped inside and began to change. On the outside there was some struggling sounds, then Cloud said, "How...do you put this thing on?"

Aeris decided to check up on how Cloud was doing. She walked over to the dressing room and peeked in through the door. Without his shirt on, or pants she stared for a moment. A small smile came on her lips. Her hand it the wall a bit forcefully and Cloud looked at her in total embarrassment. He turned a bright shade of red and put his pants back over his boxers. "Whoa! What are you doing!"

She stepped away quickly, trying hard not to laugh. "It's still not right. A wig! That's what you need!"

The shop keeper nodded, "Umm, I thought you might, so I talked to my friend about getting one. You know the gym? You'll find a lot of people there like you. Go and talk to them."

Cloud had finished putting back on his clothes. He stepped back into the store, "...'like you'? Aeris, what did you tell him?"

Deciding not to get him angry she smiled, "Does it matter? Anyhow, we got a pretty dress!" She left the store first, Cloud followed behind her. The two walked up towards the gym.

Cloud's first impression of the place was that it was too temporary to be a regular gym. It looked more like a circus tent than a building for athletes. Aeris and Cloud slowly walked inside and stopped as they looked at their new surroundings. On their right was a ring where two men were practicing on eachother. In the far left corner a man was lifting weights and on the other corner another was doing squats. Watching intently there was a man in drag watching the fighters. Cloud assumed that would be the one the dress maker told them about. He stood next to the man, who casually looked up at him. "You the one.... Who wants to be cute?"

Cloud had no idea what the shop keeper told him but he didn't like where it was going. "Cute?" he said slightly confused.

Aeris nodded, with a small smile on her face. "Right. And about the wig..."

The man nodded, "Yeah, I heard. But it'll cost ya."

The man who was doing squats looked up and angrily ran over to the group. "Urrrrgh!!!" He pointed to himself, "Big Bro!! The only way you're gonna get cuter is if you can beat the Big Bro!!"

His comments made the men in the ring stop fighting and look their way. Walking over to the ropes they peered down at the Ex-SOLDIER and laughed. One said, "That's right!" Another nodded, "So, you've got to compete with us!" The man in drag grinned, "You're right. Let's do squats." This made the other men in their happy, the one who made the challenge before smiled, "All right! We'll beat you out of this gym!"

It took Cloud and Aeris a few minutes to recognize the man underneath the women's clothing. Cloud was surprised, "Are you...?" Aeris finished the statement, "THE beautiful Bro?"

His grin grew louder, "What? You didn't know? Always running around here saying Big Bro' this, Big Bro' that...."

Bro waved off the man, "Never mind that, come over here." Both Cloud and his opponent walked toward the center of the room. "Now. I'll explain the rules. From the starting position you have to go all the way down and come all the way back up. No half squats or they won't count." He looked at Cloud, "Got it?"

Cloud nodded, "I got it."

"Whoever has the most squats at the end of 30 seconds gets the wig." He looked at the man as if to say, "Don't lose the wig."

The big man stood up straight, "I'm not going to lose. Big Bro's wig is MINE!!"

The beautiful Bro shook his head, "Just be quiet." Looking at Cloud, "It's not fair for you to start right away. So, you want practice?"

From all of the moving around he did earlier, Cloud decided he was ready to go. He shook his head. The big man and him faced off. Bro nodded, "Now let's begin the real thing. Start!"

Aeris cheered Cloud on as the two men started doing squats in the middle of the gym. Cloud paced himself and kept up dead even with his opponent. To him, he already seemed to have beaten Cloud, so he occassionally he did a victory pose, allowing Cloud to take the lead. Cloud didn't try to keep count he just continued on until the man in drag told them both to stop. He couldn't tell if he had won or lost. "He had 16 squats and you had 23 squats." Cloud grinned, Big Bro was wiping the sweat and disbelief from his forehead. "You're really something. Okay, I'm a man of my word, here you are." Cloud gratiously accepted the blonde wig from the man.

The man was fuming, "I'm so mad I'm so so so--- mad!" Before anyone realized it Beautiful Bro slugged Big Bro in his jaw, sending the big man sprawling over by the mirror. The other fighters were shocked.

Bro shook his head, "Shut up! Don't cry just because you lost!"

From the other side of the room, they heard the man groaning something. Cloud and Aeris were already leaving, wanting to get away from the madness as quick as possible. Cloud decided that he wanted one more drink before going through with this. Aeris laughed a little and followed him into the bar. By the bathroom door there was a young man who seemed to have to go real bad. Cloud walked over to the door and knocked. A woman inside snapped, "HEY...someone's IN here...don't look." Cloud could tell she wasn't feeling good at all. She looked weakly at him, "What...urk?" Cloud took out the digestive he got from the pharmacy and handid it to her. She looked surprised, Huh? You'll really give me some? Thanks." She downed it and smiled, "Phew, I feel better now. This is for your kindness." She took out a cologn from her purse and handed it to Cloud. Taking a smell he thought it was really sexy. When she was far enough away the man waiting by the door ran in and slammed it shut.

Cloud had two drinks and decided it was time to go back to the dress shop. He walked over to the dressing room inside and stepped inside. Though there was some struggling he quickly got the dress on, put the wig on and any other items he managed to get. Opening up the door he stepped out to see the whole store looking at him. Aeris was laughing and the shop keeper nodded, "Hmm, not bad. This may be a new business for me."

His daughter looked up at him, "Yeah, you're right. Should we try it?" She was so happy, the emotion was clear on her face, "Thanks for showing us something new. My father's got his motivation back now. So the dress is on the house."

Aeris was looking Cloud over carefully, "Walk nicely like... this. Miss Cloud." She took a few steps forward to show him how she walked. Cloud shook his head, "What do you mean 'nicely'?" (I'm going to kill her.) She gave an aww type of sound, "Oh you're so cute, Miss Cloud." She decided it was her turn to change, "Aaah, I want one. Do you have one that'll look good on me too?"

Both the shop keeper and his daughter started going through the racks, pulling out dress after dress and arguing with eachother about their choice being better. Aeris looked into the rack her self and pulled out a nice red one. "...I want THIS one." She walked over to the dressing room, "I'm going to go change." Before stepping inside she looked at Cloud, ...No peeking!"

While the door was shut Cloud just stood there. Under normal circumstances he would have done just what she asked him not to do. She peeked at him it was only fair. But being in the dress made him lose all desire for that. When she stepped back out into the store he looked her over carefully. She checked herself out in the mirror, "So? How do I look?"

Cloud thought she looked incredible, but he wasn't about to say that to her. The dress was cut right, showing all the right places and highlighting her figure quite well. Instead of saying anything like that he just shook his head. She sighed, "Oh you're no fun!!" Deciding they wasted enough time they both started for the Don's mansion.

Cloud stood a little ways back as Aeris greeted the door man again. He looked Cloud over thoughtfully, too thoughtfully. (Now I know what they go through.) The door man smiled, "Damn!! Your friend is hot too!" Cloud's mouth dropped. "Come in, come in!!" He knocked on the door, "Two ladies coming through!"

As if he said some sort of magic word, the two doors opened up and Aeris and Cloud stepped inside. There was a large staircase with golden colored walls and red tapestry. Statues of dragons were along the walls. A man behind a desk smiled at the two, "Hey, ladies. I'll go and let the Don know you're here. Wait here. Don't go wandering around..." He turned around and went through a back door.

Aeris looked at Cloud, "Now's our chance. Let's find Tifa."

Cloud looked around the lower floors, there were no doors so Cloud figured she would have to be upstairs. As quickly as his dress would allow he went up to the second floor and noticed that two of them were locked. The only open one was at the far end of the hallway. (Might as well try that one.) He descended the stairs into the basement below.

Tifa had been waiting there for little while. (Oh, man what am I gonna do? I should have listened to Barret.) She didn't even notice a young blonde haired woman walking in from the stair case.

Cloud looked around the room. It was a torture champer with a table, a rack and various things that were probably used for sick pleasures. Cloud walked about midway through the room before he became self conscious of what he was wearing. Turning crimson he walked over to the other corner of the room.

Aeris had been a few steps behind Cloud and saw him go to the other corner of the room. (He's gonna want to kill me.) She shook her head at Cloud and walked over to Tifa. "...Tifa?" Tifa looked up at her, wondering how she knew her name. "Nice to meet you. I'm Aeris." Getting a small acknowledgment from Tifa she continued, "Cloud's told me a lot about you."

At the mention of Cloud she focused on the new comer, "...And you are?" After a moment she remembered where she saw Aeris before, "Hey you're the one with Cloud in the park..."

Aeris smiled, "Right, with Cloud."

Tifa frowned, she managed to weakly say, "Oh..."

Aeris shook her head, seeing the dissappointment, "Don't worry. We just met. It's nothing."

Tifa looked surprised, "What do you mean, 'Don't worry'... about what?" She laughed a bit, "No, don't misunderstand. Cloud and I grew up together. Nothing more."

Aeris chuckled, "Poor Cloud, having to stand here and listen to both of us call him nothing." She turned to the other woman, "Right, Cloud."

Tifa just stared at the blonde, "Cloud?"

Cloud had never been more embarrassed in his life. He walked over to Aeris who just laughed slightly. He gave her a evil glare and she just pushed him over to Tifa. Tifa took a look and moved the wig that Cloud had been wearing. Finally realizing who it was she almost jumped out of surprise. "Cloud!?" Almost smiling, and angry she said, "Why are you dressed like that!? And what are you doing here!?" Concern took over, "Forget that, what happened to you after the fall!? Are you hurt!?"

Cloud shook his head and tried to calm her down, "Hey, give me a chance to explain. I'm dressed like this... because there was no other way to get in here." He pointed to Aeris, "I'm all right. Aeris helped me out."

Tifa looked the dress Cloud was wearing over, "Oh, Aeris did..." Cloud smiled slightly.

Now it was his turn for questions, "Tifa, explain. What are you doing in a place like this?"

Tifa looked away, she didn't want to tell Aeris about it, "Yeah, ummmm."

Taking the cue from Tifa, Aeris smiled, "Ahem! I'll just plug my ears." She walked over to the doorway.

Tifa smiled at Cloud, relief quite apparent on her face, "I'm glad you're OK." He held her hand lightly.

Cloud nodded, "Thanks. What happened?"

Tifa took a deep breath, "When we got back from the Number 5 reactor, there was this weird man. So Barret caught him and squeezed some information out of him."

Cloud smiled, "That's when the Don's name popped up."

She nodded again, "Right, Don Corneo." She looked idly at her dress, "Barret told me to leave the lech alone...but something's been bothering me."

Cloud looked over at Aeris who was still covering her ears, "I see. So you wanted to get the story straight from Corneo's mouth."

Tifa blankly stared at Cloud, "So I made it here, but now I'm in a bind. Corneo is looking for a bride. Everyday, he gets three girls, chooses one of them, and then.... ...and, well.....", she shuddered at the thought. "Anyway, I have to be the girl... or I'm out for tonight."

Aeris had uncovered her ears during the last part of the conversation. She smiled, "Sorry...but I overheard. If you know the three girls there's no problem, right?"

Tifa thought it over some, "I guess so, but..."

Aeris nodded, "We have two right here, right?"

Cloud knew what she was thinking, "No, Aeris! I can't have you get involved."

Aeris put her hands on her hips, "Oh? So it's all right for Tifa to be in danger?"

Cloud shook his head, "No, I don't want Tifa in..."

Aeris ignored him and walked Tifa over towards the door. Tifa looked concerned, "Is is all right?" Aeris smiled, "I grew up in the slums...I'm used to danger." Aeris looked at Tifa seriously, "Do you trust me?"

Tifa nodded, "Yes. Thanks, Ms. Aeris."

Aeris shook her head, "Call me Aeris."

From above the man who was behind the desk shouted down to them. ""He---y!!" He walked halfway down the stairs, "It's time, ladies. The Don is waiting!" He turned around and started back up. As he was walking they could hear him say, I told ya not to wander around... I tell ya, women nowadays...Hurry up, will ya!"

Cloud looked at both Aeris and Tifa, "I probably don't need to ask but the other girl is....Me....right?"

Tifa and Aeris looked at eachother grimly, "You're right, there's no need..." Aeris finished the statement, "...to ask." Cloud sighed and started up the stairs, handing Tifa her new glove and armor before going.

Back at the top of the stairs Cloud saw the man who was at the desk blocking off the hallway to the stairs. (Guess there's nothing I can do now. I'm glad mom can't see me now.)

The office of Don Corneo was quite elaborate for a small time crook. There was a lot of expensive vases all over the place and the carpet was top notch. Cloud almost puked when he saw the Don sitting at his desk, with a cruel smile on his face. He had to imagine what Aeris and Tifa thought. On both sides two henchmen were standing by. The one on Cloud's left spoke authoratatively, "All right, ladies!" He pointed to the area in front of the desk, "Line up in front of the Don!"

Not wanting to cause a rukus before they got the information Tifa wanted Cloud lined up in between Aeris and Tifa. Corneo's eyes bulged as he saw the visions of beauty in front of him. He jumped onto his desk, "Hmmm! Good, spendid!" He jumped off of the desk and walked over to where Aeris stood. She smiled nicely at him and he of course smiled back. "Now, lets see...which girl should I choose? Hmmm...hmmm!" He proceeded to walk across the area; when he got to Cloud he said, "This one?" Cloud turned his head away shyly. "Or this one?" He said to Tifa who stood confidently in front of him, (Hmmm strong one. That'd be fun) Corneo thought as he turned his attention back to Cloud. He tried to get a better look at Cloud but each time he turned his head, Cloud looked the other way. Finally the Don stopped looking and yelled, "Woo-hoo, I've made up my mind!!" He looked at all the women thoughtfully, "My choice for tonight is....." There seemed to be an invisible drum roll in the air. Cloud began to sweat (What if he chooses...me?) A huge sigh of relief came to him when the Don went over to Aeris, "This slender little girl!"

Aeris nodded, "Don, you've got great taste."

The Don smiled, (Of course I do!) He was in a good mood, these women were far hotter than the ones he normally got. "You can have the other ones!"

Cloud had thought it would be getting better for him. Hearing that he almost had a heart attack. The two henchmen smiled, "Yes, sir! Thank you sir!"

Don Corneo motioned for Aeris to follow, "Well then, shall we go my pretty." Without another word Aeris left the group and followed the Don towards his back room.

Cloud and Tifa were seperated by the two henchmen. Tifa was led back down into the basement by one and Cloud was sent to the only other door he hadn't been through yet. It was a large room, with couches and a TV, the employee lounge. The floor was slightly messed up with food containers and bottles of liqour. The man who led him there, names Scotch, walked over to the windows, ""Hey guys! We've got guests. We'll take REAL good care of you. This is all thanks to the big boss, Don Corneo!" All the men said unanimously, "Heey!! Three cheers for Don Corneo!" Scotch smiled, "Heh, heh.... Well ladies, are we, uh, all ready?"

Cloud was about to say no when they all started chasing him around the room. He avoided them easily, probably because they were drunk and because he didn't want their hands on him in any way. He quickly walked over to Scotch. Scotch grinned at him, "Hey... what's wrong? Want me to keep you company?"

Cloud quickly shook his head, "No... I'm flattered, but no thanks." (It's time to end this.) "Because..."

Scotch looked confused, "Because...?"

Cloud nodded, "Because...I ain't INTERESTED in a buncha scrubs like you!"

He jumped to the center of the room and ripped the dress of. Throwing the wig down to the floor with a sense of finality he took his sword out from the case he had carried with him. Scotch and the others were outraged, "Wha.... a MAN!???" Pointing at Cloud he yelled, "God damn it! You think you can get away with this! Get him! Knock the crap out of him!!"

Cloud saw three of the men run at him from behind. He leaped into the air and landed nimbly behind them. With one quick swing he took out all three. As they hit the floor Cloud smiled at Scotch.

Scotch's temples throbbed, "Grr! C'mon, what's the matter with you good for nothings!? All right now, COME ON! I'll show you how it's done!!"

This time Scotch stayed back as the other two attacked. Cloud took out the first man with a quick stab in the chest. The second tried to pistol whip Cloud but missed as Cloud ducked underneath the blow and back stabbed him. Scotch looked on in surprise but immediatly started to shoot at Cloud. Seeing he was too far away to use his sword he decided to cast a fire spell. Scotch felt the gun drop out of his hands as flames burnt the skin around him. He tried to pick up the weapon but Cloud ran him through before he could reach it. Resheathing his sword Cloud looked over the room and quickly left it.

As he made his way through the halls Tifa came running over to him. He looked her over, back in her regular clothes. "Are you alright?", he asked quickly.

She smiled and raised her fist, "Of course! If you take me lightly, you're gonna pay for it!!"

Cloud laughed quickly, it was time for them to save Aeris. Tifa and Cloud burst through the door and saw the back entrence still open. The began to make their way to the other side.

Aeris was sitting on the corner of the Don's bed, while he was grinning sheepishly at her from the other side. He looked at his watch, "Woo-hoo! Come, come, don't be so shy..."

Aeris was so nervous, "Ye... yes...But Mr. Don. I'd like you to explain something to me first..." She hoped to get the information before she had to do something she would never forgive herself for. (I hope Cloud and Tifa hurry up.)

Thinking her hesitation as something else he smiled calmly, "Of course, my dear. I'll take you through it slowly, step by step. So come on!" He stood up and removed his robe, letting her see him without a shirt.

Aeris was horrified, "No, that's not what I meant! NO, STOP! Just, wait a second!!" (I've got to get out of here!!)

Don Corneo began moving on towards her, she was in a corner with no way out. (I should have listened to Cloud!) He smiled, "Come! Come! Aoooooh!! I can't wait any longer! Here comes papa!!" He began to unbotton his pants.

At that moment Cloud and Tifa broke into the room. The Don looked up, surprised at the inturruption, it was long enough for Aeris to move out of the way of him leaping on top of her. Both Cloud and Tifa could see the fear that was on Aeris' face, her color was coming back to her, with a weak smile she said, "Cloud!!"

Don Corneo looked at the two new comers and recognized them both as the ones he looked over before. He gazed at Cloud, "Wha... what the hell? Who goes there!?"

Aeris regained her composure, "I'm sorry, Don." She went out of the room for a few moments and changed back into her regular ones. Cloud and Tifa stood ready for the Don to try and escape. When she returned he looked at her as well.

The Don was about to say something when Tifa cut him off, "Shut up, we're asking the questions now..." She defiantly looked the pathetic looking man over, "What did your assistants find out? Talk! If you don't tell us..."

Cloud held out his sword, "I'll cut them off."

Don's eyes bulged wide open, "No! Not that! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

Tifa glared at him, "So...talk."

Corneo began to sweat heavily, he wiped it off on his robe. "...I made 'em find out where the man with the gun-arm was. But that's what I was ordered to do."

Tifa looked at him, "By who?"

He shook his head, "No--! If I told you that, I'd be killed!"

Tifa was getting tired of him, "Talk! If you don't tell us..."

Aeris put her foot up on the bed, "...I'll rip them off."

Corneo decided that would be worse than getting it cut, ""Waaaaah--! It was Heidegger of Shinra! Heidegger, the head of Public Safety Maintenance!"

Cloud looked surprised, "The head of Public Safety Maintenance?" (Well that explains why he has so much expensive stuff.)

Tifa's anger was beginning to rise, "Did you say the Shinra!? What are they up to!? Talk!" She decided to cut to the chase, "If you don't tell us...", she put her foot up on the bed, "I'll smash them."

Corneo realized this was worse than the other two, "...You're serious, aren't you.... ...ohboy, ohboy, ohboy.... I'm not fooling around here either, you know. Shinra's trying to crush a small rebel group called AVALANCHE, and want to infiltrate their hiedout. And they're really going to crush them... literally. By breaking the support holding up the plate above them."

It took the words less than a second to sink in. Tifa stepped back away from everyone, "Break the support!?"

The Don nodded, "You know what's going to happen? The plate'll go PING and everything's gonna go BAMMM!! I heard their hideout's in the Sector 7 Slums...I'm just glad it's not here in Sector 6."

Tifa was in shock, "They're going to wipe out the Sector 7 Slums!?" She looked fearfully at Cloud, "Cloud, will you come with me to Sector 7?"

He nodded, "Of course, Tifa."

They all start out of the room. The Don stops them, "Just a second!" Cloud had, had his fill of this disgusting man already, "Shut up!" The Don shook his head, "No wait, it'll only take a second. How do you think scum like me feels when they babble on about the truth?"

Cloud thought about it, "They don't know what the hell's going on."

The Don hit a lever and laughed, "Close, but no cigar!" Underneath them the floor opened up and they all fell into the depths below. From his vantage point Don Corneo danced happily.


End file.
